The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-17
PLAN TO CHANCE
 AMERICAN LAWS American Bar Association VIII
 Suggest Changes LEGAL DELAYS TOO GREAT
Committee on Revision of Procedure
  Says That Present Methods of Trial Are Like a Game To Be SkilIfully Played.

New York, August 16.-Courts of appeal will no longer decide either civil or crim- inal litigations brought before them on purely technical points, but will base their rulings on the merits of cases if the recommendations formulated by special committee of the American Bar association shall become law.
 The committee was appointed by the association at it's last annual meeting to suggest remedies and draft proposed laws to prevent delay and unnecessary cost in litigation. Its report will be pre- sented at the next annual meeting, to be held in Seattle from August 25 to 2S. It opens with a statement that the ex- isting evil which seems most serious to the committee is the disposition in many jurisdictions to dispose of appeals or writs of error, both in civil and criminal cases upon technical grounds and not to decide them upon the merits. In the judgment of the committee the rule for deciding appeals and writs of error should not be based on reversible error, com mitted in the court below, but upon the merits as the case appears upon the record. Continuing, the report calls at- tention to the fact that the tendency of the courts in common law cases Is to construe adherence to strict legal rules as the right of each party and to reverse if there has been any infraction of these rules.
 "This makes the trial of a case a game" declared the committee, ''in which the one wins who plays the most skill fully, the merits of the controversy hav- ing no part"
 The unrestricted right to a writ of error in criminal cases Is characterized by the committee as a fragrant abuse In j1dicial procedure. ''These writs," the committee added, "are constantly sued out solely for delay. The punishment of notorious criminals thus is constantly being postponed in violation of justice. This Is especially fragrant in the suing out of writs of error from the superior court of the United States to review the decision of the highest courts of crim- inal Jurisdiction in the several courts. We recommend that no writ of error re- turnable in criminal cases to the su- perior court of the United States should be allowed until justice at that court shall certify that there is probable cause
 
 ly convicted.
 In spite of this recommendation the committee quotes an address of Andrew D. White, in which he stated that while murders were increasing rapidly, yet the procedure against them was becoming more and more ineffective and in the light of recent cases in New York and elsewhere was seen to be farce, adding that he favored preventing appeals based on mere technical matters and upon er- TOTS of trial judges in trifling matters of procedure and the like which have noth- ing to do with the question of guilt or innocence.
 The committee declares that the re- forms in civil procedure which 1t rec- ommends are not theoretical, but have been tried and adopted in England to the satisfaction of the bar and the benefit of litigants. "So far as reform in crim- inal procedure Is concerned" says the report "the grievance of which we com plain has never existed in England, but the statutory provisions there are sim- lar to those recommended by us.''
 The committee will submit the draft of an act to amend the particulars con- cerned in the judicial procedure of courts of the United States.