Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-03-03
A Demand for Slmpliication Of the Laws
Of Virginia.


A Demand for Slmpliication of the Laws
Of Virginia.
Edator of indicator:
| do not desire to use your paper as the |
vehicle to convey to the public any selfish |
idea nor any partizan or class scheme; but !
I wish through it to make suggestion,
that if carried out will be of vast benefit
to the people of Virginia. feel that it
will only be opposed by few old fogies,
and selfish attorneys who, like the priest
of the ozark Ages" wish to keep the
masses in ignorance, that they may in
crease in riches and Importance. Before
I submit my proposition, will make
few desultory remarks, that have only an
indirect bearing upon the subject. 1t
strikes me as very strange that in law we
are always governed by precedent which
never changes. Errors, false conclusions
and marked defects are thus perpetuated
through all time, without any hope of those
changes and alterations which difference
in times and circumstances and a greater
enlightenment and civilization would seem
to demand. For we. in almost all things
have more knowledge, better under
standing and certainly more light than
people possessed century ago. Lawyers
are bound down, subordinated and are
slaves to precedent. They are educated
to form no legal opinions of their own,
since all are levelled down to one stand
ard, and every mind, however, bold or in
tellectual, must bend to the despOt Pre-
cedent. You hear judges delivering opln-
ions from the bench and deciding rules
and points of law, not from their own
ideas of right and justice, but they inva-
riably quote the opinion of some old judge
of hundred years ago, and whether he
was right or wrong. every judge and every
lawyer must be governed by his decision.
s'Judge Punkinhead decided SO and so in
I the case of Jones versus Brown and as
this is similar case, the only difference
| eide 60 and So"
Why, in the name of conscience don't
| they use their own knowledge of the law,
their own understanding, why do they not
decide this is law or that is law, and it
necessary, give the reason, and let Judge
Punkinhead and his presidents sleep in
| peace!
| The Athenians borrowed the foundations
of their law, but improved and altered
them from time to time as necessity and
advancement demanded. The Romans
did likewise until their laws were almost
perfected during the reign of Justinian,
who was, by the way, in other respects
but poor Emperor
The English law is a mixture of the
! Justinian code and the feudal laws, and
our law is borrowed from the English.
| Now the trouble with US is that the law
| is 80 complicated. forms of procedure so
| numerous and some OF the enactments so
contradictory THAT the legislature ought to
abridge and simplify them. The misfor-
tune is, that it has been to the interest of
the practitioner to keep them complicated.
Law suits are frequently handed down
from father to son, from one generation to
another. But to the point. No one will
| dare claim that our laws are perfect, but,
on the other hand, I think that our statute
law particularly, is intricate, contradicto-
~ and cumbersome-dificult to master
and subject to various interpretations.
Let us then, after the manner of the pol
ished Athenians, the all-conquerlng Ro-
mans, and the sturdy English, change, pu-
rify and reform our laws as advancement
in civilization and culture demand. /
therefore suggest that the legislature shall
| appoint one or more able. learned and reli-
able gentlemen whose duty 1t shall be to
I revise, abridge and simplify our statute
law-upon somewhat the following plan:
LIST. Repeal all statutes which have beer
virtually repealed by other and contradic
tory statutes.
End. Repeal all statutes which are obso
lete and grown into d1suse.
3rd. Repeal all statutes which have beer
rendered useless by subsequent alterations
and amendments.
4th. Repeal all statutes which, having
no penalty and no Importance, and ARE
therefore not carried out, and which only
serve to render the law ridiculous in the
eyes of the people.
5th. Place all statutes which pertain TIC
the same subject together in uniform
simple and comprehensive way.
Let this be done in a calm, unpartizan
and dispassjonate manner. Let not the
people remain the victims of the embar-
RAISING and complicated laws, which were
originally framed and intended for their
benefit and protection.
Before close there is one other matter
to which [ would like to call the attention
of the legislature-tha is, the outrageous
discrimination in freight rates on the part
of our railroad companies. 1t costs more
to ship produce from Stanton to Rich
mond a distance of 1856 miles, than it does
from Chicago to Richmond distance of
500 miles. Similar discrimination is shown
in all the other roads. Any intelligent
man knowns the remedy. Will the legls-
lature apply it Will they faithfully rep
resent their people, or will they continue
to uphold the defective laws which permit
such gross imposition Time alone will
show. Respectfully,
JOHN N. OPIE.
AUGUSTA Co., Feb. 9th.