The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-01-08
STATE LAWS REVISED
Work That the Governor s
Special Commissioners
Have Done.
SOME OF THE PROPOSED CHANGES
A Bi-Partisan Jury Commission
Among the Number TO Be Re-
ported TO The Legislature.
[speciel 10 ..The Jersey city News.'


TRENTON. Jan. s, 1S9S.-The several
commissions appointed by Governor
Griggs some months ago to revise, codify
and suggest amendments to the existing
laws on different subjects are all expect
ed to make their reports to the incoming
legislature These commissions have peen
busy for some time, and most OF them
have practically completed their work.
For the most part they will content them
selves with simplifying and reducing the
bulk of the present laws, without sug-
gesting any radical changes. Ihe one
notable exception is in the case OF the
Commission on Jury Laws, which Will
recommend bipartisan jury eommls-
sion in each county to supersede the Sher-
ifs in the work of drawing grand and
petit juries. The Commission which Will
make this recommendation is composed OF
Frank Bergen, of Elizabeth; John y. II.
Pitney, of Newark, and Charles Z. Black
of Jersey City.
In deciding to favor jury commssiiolss :
the three lawyers just named reailZeu
that if they suggested any changes Whicn
would lessen the fees of the Sherlffs, the
Sheriffs could be counted upon TO unite
and make vigorous ngnl asain1SSe 1S 1,ae. Snr
passage of a jury commission bill. For
that reason they deemed 1t expedlent not
to take away from the Sherlns the ices
those Officials now receive for summoning
Jurors BY this concession the SneIiAs
are placed in a position where, according
to one of the Senators, the only argu-
ment they can offer against jury COM
mission bill will be that 1t would take
away from them the old opportunity 10
pack juries-an argument whlchTne sen
ator thinks will hardly be advanced;
The Jury commissions are to consist OF
two persons in each county, TO pc seiectsu'
lI,Ar
preme Court Justices sitting IN the sew
erai counties. These commissioners are
to be paid compensation not exceeding
$500 year, to be fixed by the supreme
Court Justices and to be paid out of the
State Treasury. The proposition TO nave
the Commissioners paid by the state m
stead of by the several counties mas peeh
agreed upcn from fear that the repre-
sentatives from the smaller countleS
would object to the change II 1t inVofVeo
any additional expense upon tnelr couh-
ties 49,
iuries shall be divided into classes, one
class to serve at a time. This is 10 re-
lieve Jurors from the necessity OIL serving
continuously all through term OF court,
a matter Of much hardship to business
men in large counties, where the term ol
court lasts several weeks. .u4
The bill Outside of the features JUST
described, follows closely the lines OF OF
the Jury Commission bill passed in 1888
and repealed in the following year LISTS
eligible persons lOI july udty Ni - -
prepared, and from these lists given
number of names are to be taken, ana
then the Jurors, both grand and petit. are
to be drawn by lot in the presence OF the
court.
The Commissioners who have agreed
upon the above recommendations hoped
to make other suggestions IN the way OF
revising the exempt list, but they reared
TO go any further than they have lest they
invoke opposition before the Legislature
and get nothing. AS the recommendation;
stand they feel confident that they Will
be enacted into law. :.
One of the good things that Will result
from the appointment of the several COM
missions to codify the laws will be not
only the simplifying of the existing
their volume Ex-Judge Lanning, one of
the Commissioners on Township Laws:
said yesterday that the Commission OF
which he is member will make practi-
cally no changes, but that there would be
a great pruning down and the volume OF
the township laws reduced considerably
more than one-half. A similar result is
expected to be accomplished by the other
Commissions, of which there are more
than a half dozen. 1t is expected tnat
more Commissions will be appointed this
winter, and that gradually there will be a
complete codifcation of all the laws OF the
State on the almost numberless subjects
of legislation. This reform has been
since he became the States Chief tx
ecutive. The laws of New Jersey today
take up about 1000 pages, and could be
reduced at least one-half without eliminat.
ing anything but useless repetitions and
more or less conflicting sections.