The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-17
REFORMING THE COURTS.

REFORMING THE COURTS.
And now the courts are to be re-
cipients of the tender ministrations of
the American Judicature society This
is an association of lawyers and pro-
fessors of law that has just been or
ganized with the object of working out
court reforms. It's members declare the
courts are short of modern ideals of
efficiency. They propose to suggest a
remedy, after a careful analysis of the
defects of the present system, through
model laws for the conduct of the
courts which they will draft.
There is not the slightest doubt but
the courts and court procedure are
in need of reforming in many particu-
lars. and it is highly probable that
many of the suggestions which will be
made by the Judicature society in due
time will be of value But it is also a
fact that many of the defects of the
court system now in existence can be
traceable directly to the attitude and
conduct of practicing lawyers. And 1t
might not come amiss if the lawyers,
while they are buckling down to the
task of steering the courts into more
desirable channels of effectiveness,
should devote a little time and atten-
ton to working out few reforms for
tkeir own conduct and methods of pro-
cedure
No one feature of the inefficiency of
the present court system works great
er ha -dships on litigants, or on persons
accused of crime. and interferes so ex-
tensively with the administration of
exact justice, than the one Of many
ramif1catio whichis most expressively
described in the phrase, the laws de-
lay" And lawyers themselves are re-
sponsible for it to a far greater extent
than are any of the defects that may
exist in the methods of judicial pro-
cedure under existing laws, or that
may be due to faults and errors of
judges.
Go into court on a motion day.
How many of the lawyers are ready
to proceed with the matters that the
court has placed on the calendar, and
of which they have had due notice?
Three or four perhaps, out of fifteen
or twenty. Most of these motions are
preliminary to perfecting a case for
trial At the request of the lawyers,
though, thew are postponed from week
to week. and sometimes from month
to month. until the motion calendars
become clogged. and the court has
more business of this sort on it's hands
than it can attend to with anything
like promptness and dispatch. And
even when the average case is finally
prepared and called for trial, 1t is the
lawyers on one side or the other, or
both ask for one or more postpone
nents
Go into a court when any kind of a
case, criminal or civil is on trial. Just
wa tch how much time is wasted by the
lawyers in their examination and
ross-examination of witnesses. They
not only wear out the nerves of the
witnesses, often with the Interior object
Of breaking them down and get
ting them to give confused testi-
mony. but they also tire the judges |
and give the jurors the fdgits. |
In the district court of Shawnee |
recently a case was tried with |
out a jury that consumed the better |
part of a dozen days of the courts |
time. Not a great sum was involved in |
this suit Nor were any very perplex- |
ing questions in it that needed extended |
Neither was the number of
witnesses large. Days and days of the |
courts time were no more than actual |
ly wasted in the unnecessarily pro- |
longed examination, ton !
and reexamination of witnesses.
And so it goes. The wheels of justice |
are damned The laws delay works
overtime. And the lawyers, not the
judges and the methods of procedure, |
are the ones who are chiefly to blame |
Let the courts be reformed by all
means, where reforms are needed. But
let the lawyers reform themselves. No
pot ever acquired peachy complexion
by merely seeing to it that the kettle |
scrl1hhad nd rnnliShad