The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-19
ATTORNEY WHITE DISCUSSES LOCAL SYSTEM 0F COURTS Crude Machinery of Justice and Not Judges Are
 at Fault JUDGE OLSON OFFERS TO MAKE SPEECH HERE Prominent Birmingham Attorney Does Not Agree With Major Smiths
 Solution of Jefferson Coun-
 ty Court Muddle

With the increasing population or Jefferson county has come corres- bonding increase in the number Of suits filed in the several courts of the coun- ty. both criminal and civil. The sao- solute inability of the present system
 to cope with the situation In this re- spect is apparent to every one who has dealings with the law and it's admin | istration, and the dockets of every oi- vision of the several courts are gettins | further and further behind. The bar or
 the city and county generally recos- nize the need of a change from tho present methods, for no matter now faithfully the officials perform their
 duty the dockets of the court get more congested daily. Every week, every
 day cases are being filed and while the
 courts are grinding steadily they grind exceedingly small"
 Among the remedies suggested to i'm prove the conditions has been the es- tablishment of a municipal court pat termed after similar courts that nave already been established in several or the large and growing cities of the union. According to the reports rom these courts they have been an un- qualified success Several Of the mem- l bers of the Birming gham bar have in
 vestigated the municipal court and have expressed themselves much in favor or
 the establishment of court in Bir- mingham along similar lines.
 Attorney H. K. White, one Of the charter members of the Birmingham Bar association, lawyer of wide ex- perience, and one who is familiar with | the conditions as they exist In the city
 and county in reference to court prac- tice and procedure. gives out the fol- lowing as his views on the situation: White Writes to Chicago
 q read with much interest in last Sundays Age Herald the interview With Mai. J. 0. Smith and his outline of a legislative act to create the municipal court of Birmingham, modelled after the municipal court of Chicago, which has. from all accounts, been such an effective judicial machine for the dis patch of business ever since it's creation l five years ago wrote Chief Justice Olson of that court and he sent me its five annual records and it's orders and forms in both civil and criminal procedure. There is no doubt that 1t | is a splendid machine for the efficient and prompt dispatch of business and keeps right up with it's dockets with | its chief justice and 27 associate jus tices who are assigned to their work | by him.
 Those 2s judges do for Chicago with its two and one-half million peo- pie practically all its court business. civil and criminal, and keep up with the dockets. In Jefferson county, with 250, 900 people, just one-tenth the pop ulation of Chicago, we have 16 judges of all the courts, civil and criminal, ] in Birmingham, Bessemer, Ensley and Woodlawn. besides about 100 justices of the peace.
 "The municipal court of Chicago abolished all justices of the peace in that immense city. I would like to see | that office become also extinct in Jeff ferson county. With good road and rail communication between every part of the county and Birmingham every case of sufficient importance to get into court at all should be commenced in central court with one presiding judge and one clerks office In Bir- mingham. As 1t is now practically ev- cry case of any importance commenced in a justices court finds it way by appeal to the superior courts.
 "A presiding judge could assign as | sociate judges to hold court at Besse
 mer, Ensley etc, and the clerk of the court could have branch offices, as the conveniences of the people might re- quire, but such assignments should be l determined by the court whose perma- nent courthouse and offices should be | at Birmingham for the entire county. All our various courts, large and small,
 common law, chancery and criminal, | and the probate court, so far as it's judicial as distinguished from its cler- ical work Is concerned, should be or | ganized into one judicial machine for
 the entire county. This would make
 imperial Jefferson more imperial, and cure many of the evils which now re-
 tard our progress.
 | Disagrees With Smith
 l do hol tiiiuk court
 with chief justice and four associate
 justices, as proposed by Major Smith,
 would help the situation very much. That would mean simply an additional court, adding five judges and one court to the Is judges we now have beside our 100 justices of the peace and to the six courts we now have, in the
 courthouse besides the three at Besse- mer, Ensley and Woodlawn What we need is not more judges and courts. but a consolidat ton and reorganization of those we have into one central tu- dicial machine under the direction of one chief justice, who will then nec- essarily be the most important man ! in our county and who will keep the I Judicial machine going in all It's parts
 at it's maximum of efficiency The work
 could be done with fewer judges than
 we now have. Such a system con- pared with the present crude and dis | jointed one would be like a modern
 reaper and binder compared with the
 primitive sickle.
 Can Legislature Act?
 Now, the question is. can our pres ent courts be consolidated into such
 a judicial machine. under the existing provisions of our state constitution by an act of the next legislature? I think they can. The bar of Birmingham prac- | ticaIIv did this nine years ago. when