The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-17
LAWYERS SLOW ID !. DISCUSS O'NEA['S REFORM METHODS Majority Ask More Time for
 Consideration of
 Speech c. B. SMITH SAYS GOOD AS A WHOLE" Jesse StalIings Approves Majority of Recommendations - Many State
 Enforcing Reforms Will
 Be Another Matter" 

Before expressing opinions concerning the efficacy of Governor ONears recom- mendations for changes in the current system of court procedure. Birmingham attorneys as a rule demand more time for consideration.
 However, the consensus of off hand opinion seems to be that. as the gov ernor charged, the present system is an- tiquated and illogical. However, in- dorsement is not given to each of his recommendations, and considerable doubt is expressed concerning the probability of an early adoption of single one.
 In other words, it seems that the law yers read the governors speech in which his recommendations were incorporated. and having read, filed 1t away for future reference.
 Good as a Whole
 c. B. Smith, who very soon will be one of the judges of the circuit court. thinks that the recommendations of the gov ernor. when taken as whole, are good. although he believes that 1t would be difficult to obtain such proposed drastic changes in the current system.
 ''The governor beyond all doubt" stated Mir Smith, said some very excel lent things. For instance, I heartily concur In his recommendation that there shall be no reversals by the supreme court on grounds of misdirection of juries-on technicalities. His recommen- dation that no misdemeanor cases should be docketed save where grand juries have made indictments is also good in that were it in force many trivial cases would not be in court to clog the wheels of justice However. there is the diff culty which reposes in the fact that very often the grand jury is not in session.
 Concerning his criticism of the fee system, we all agree, of course. And no one will openly aver that judges and so- lcitors should waste the time and the money of the county and state. think he Is correct, too, when he relieves the judges and the solicitors of at least a portion of the odium attached to a situa- ton characterized by difficulty of pro- cedure. Our system does need reforma- tion in certain regards. What changes will be more efficacious, however, and how such changes are to be acquired will produce state of opinions so divergent that it is difficult to foretel what de velopments would obtain. v
 E. K. Campbell Declines
 F. K. Campbell declined to express his opinion for publication. although he admitted that the current system could be improved. He took the position that it is very easy to point out evils but very difficult to gain their correction
 Col. Jesse F. Stallings, however, ex- pressed himself as approving of the majority of the recommendations of the governor. He was especially pleased with what the chief executive had to say in reference to the idleness of judges and solicitors There was a time" stated Colonel Stallings, when nine judges and nine solicitors did the work of the state. The criticism will immediately be made that since that good day the business of the courts has rapidly increased. However this criticism would be inaccurate, for with the exception of Jefferson county cases, the number of suits elsewhere in the state has been dcreased. The governors S recommendations were worthy indeed How to put force into their bodies. however. is another question:"
 Be RevOIutionized
 W. J. Conniff, one of the young mem bers of the bar, made the following statement: Were the recommenda- tions of the governor carried out, the present system of court procedure would be entirely revolutionized In the pres ent system there is much of good more of good, no doubt, than of evil. Many of the propositions cited by the governor are very fine. The evil of the present system could be reduced to q minimum if some means is devised to prevent the docketing of trivial cases and to prevent the repeal of cases save when it is proved beyond all question that certain injustice has been done to defendants"
 Frank s. White, Jr, and Forney Johnston, without going into details. said: The governor made good speech"
 Both of these lawyers, however, are certain that new interest has been aroused in the Bar association as a re- suit of the meeting last week in Mont gomery and that instead of encoun- tering slow death as was once con- sidered probable the institution will continue for an indefinite period as an agency of much good.
 We heard the discussion of real live subjects" said MT. Johnston, and of matters of reform in court procedure and general practice that will have salutary effects. The association Is now a real live insfffntiap'