The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-06-17
Need Of Court Reform

mendously One illustration of the
way this happens is furnished by The
Barre Times. which says
" After two trials in Caledonia
county court, two hearings in Yer
mont supreme court, and the begin
ming Of third in county court the
litigants in an alienation action got
together and settled the case out of
court Fine result, and finer If they
had got together before Vermont had
been forced to spend 50 much money
on the case,
This was a fair case as compared
with some of the causes of litigation
which so frequently monopoize the
time of our courts and absorb the
taxpayers money II Is time to put
more reasonable limit upon the
kind of cases that can be dragged
along in this way through all the
courts. Huntington Free Press
Right at this time there is brought
TO The Messengers attention by
lawyer friend the following interest
ing suggestion taken from a current
professional publication.
"ProiXity of pleading, scarcely re-
garded as a fault in this day, seems
to have been a more serious offense
in the Elizabethan era of the Eng
lish practice Munro's Acta CANCEL
ariae, 692, quotes a decree entered in
1886. finding that a replication doth
amount to six score sheets of paper
| and yet all of the matter thereof
which is pertinent might have been
well contrived in sixteen sheets OF
paper, and reciting a confession OF
Richard Mylward that he did both
draw, devise and engross the same
replication His lordship, being of
the opinion that such an abuse Is not
in any sort to be tolerated, proceed
ing Of a malicious purpose to in
crease the defendants charge and be-
ing frought with much impertinent
matter not fit for this court ordered
! that the Warden of the Fleet bring
the offender into Westminster Hall
and cut a hole in the myddest of the
same engrossed replication and put
the said Richards head through the
same hole. and so let the said repli-
cation hang about his shoulders with
the written side outwards and then
the same so hanging shall lead the
same Richard bareheaded and bare
faced round about Westminster hall
whilst the courts are sitting, and
shall show him at the bar of every
one of the three courts within the
hall and shall then take him back
again to the feet and keep him pris-
oner until he shall have paid $40 70
Her Majesty for a fine, and twenty
mobiles to the defendant, for his costs
in respect of the aforesaid abuse.
There was sterner sense of JUS
tice in those days about some OF
these things but the tendency OF the
bar has been toward these faults
from a time whereof of the memory
of man runneth not to the contrary. "
There is something in the art of prac
tice at law that easily beguiles men
into spinning over.nce refnements OF
meaning out of once very clearly in
tended phrases of statutes, into in
venting ingenious means OF prolOng-
ing the way to final judgment, and
this. with the long established prin-
ciple OF Jurisprudence of the English
speaking people that a man is pre-
sumed to be innocent until proven
guilty, has led TO a degree of procras-
tination and multiplication of process
and hearings that in latter years in
this country has come to be a great
national reproach The administra-
ton of justice is seldom speedy and
certain and frequently fails altogeth-
er while the deliberations of the
courts in one form or another entail
tremendously disproportionate bur
den of expense upon the taxpayers.
The courts of Vermont, that is to
say. the supreme court and superior
! Judges, have recently made very
earnest and to an extent effective eff
forts to do away with this abuse.
/ But in the opinion of layman. they
will never succeed completely in re-
| deeming the system from this evil
until the bar itself undertakes the
reform from within it's own member
ship
There should be a higher ethical
/ standard for the profession and II
should be enforced But, back Of
that. the standard of qualifications
for admission to and practice at the
/ bar should be raised TO that level
where the ethical standard will pre-
vail as a mere matter of course We
have too many lawyers in Vermont
and too many of them are undeserv-
ing of the very great and serious res
possibility of being officers of the
court as they actually are. A part
of this yexatious and expensive pro-
longaton or multiplication of suits
comes from deliberate intent to make
a dollar at the expense of state or
client. It is the result of a system
attic endeavor to make the law, like
war, in ancient times, support itself
And a part of it comes from the inca
pacity of ignorant and unfit lawyers
st Adams Messenger