The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-21
COURTS
 GALL FOR ACTION
Attorneys and Judges Giving Matter Earnest Consideration
THE MEETING TOMORROW
Various Remedies Are sugeested-Von L. Thompson Gives Out State
 ment Explaining the Fea-
 lures of His Skeleton Bill.

There is much interest among attorneys and judges of the city in the meeting which is to be held in the Circuit court room tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock to discuss means of remedying the con- gested condition of the City and Circuit courts.
 The fact that these two courts are l5O0 cases behind in their work has impressed on the minds of the members of the leg islature from Jefferson county the ne- cessity for immediate action.
 Several remedies have already been suggested Representative Blackburn is said to have prepared a bill which estab- fishes one Superior court of Jefferson with civfGand criminal divisions. The Criminal court will remain practically unchanged under the bill, but the present City Circuit and Chancery courts will be combined into one civil court with chancery jurisdiction. One more judgeshp would be created, making five judges for the civil division and two for the criminal division.
 
 skeleton for a bill which differs some what from that of MT. Blackburn in that the Criminal court is not to be included in the Superior court of Jefferson coun- ty, but it is 10 be left as 1t is MT. Thompson said yesterday that according to the new constitution, no court in the state can have more than five judges, and
 
 could not be included, as it would make seven judges of the Superior court. His plan is to consolidate the City, Circuit and Chancery courts into one Superior court of Jefferson county. and to create another division, making five divisions in all, and the creation of associate judge ships for each division. He said:
 chancery Jurisdiction. q first advocated that each division of this Superior court should be given juris- dction in both common law and equity but I find that the idea is not very popu- lar with attorneys. I am now convinced myself that 1t would be better to have chancery jurisdiction confined to one division of the court exclusively. It would be fairer to the Judges as 1t would enable them to confine their time and attention to that branch to which they have been elected or assigned.
 "The plan I had thought out also pro- vides that any jury or juryman summon | ed may serve in any division of the Su- perior court; that when a judge finishes sthe cases assigned to his division for any particular day he shall proceed to call the next case in any division that stands for trial and in this way the docket could be disposed of faster. and that when a judge is trying non-jury cases and fin- ishes he can impannel jury and pro- ceed with jury cases.'
 Representative L. J Haley, Jr., stated attempting to get the state to bear part of the expense of carrying on the courts of the county. He said that it costs in the neighborhood of s2O,OOO annually to maintain the courts of this county and that 1t would be no more than just for the state to bear at least part of the ex- pense, since most of the other courts of the state are free of cost to the counties in which they are carried on. | All these matters will be taken up at the meeting of the bar tomorrow morn ing and it is thought that competent committee will be appointed to investi- gate the best remedy for the whole mat ter with instructions to report back to a meeting of the bar to be held next week. If the attorneys of Birmingham can agree on a remedy it is thought that there will be no trouble in getting a measure through the legislature.