Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-18

/ Judge William Z AAAi eA'
missing a Jury recently after II nau
| failed to agree on Verdic1 III q
criminal case. thereby making a re-
| trial necessary. deplored the faet ol
the disagreement, because the courts
are already overcrowded with worn
"The Court of Common PEAS 10
three months behind in It's NoIh
now" was the statement mace ny
Judge Martin from the bench, anu
was the first official statement mace
in regard to the condition at the
county courts at the present time.
That the courts are oyererowded
and overworked has long been ap-
parent to lawyers and others having
business with the criminal courts,
and the main reason is likewise APP
parent to all familiar with the cir
cumstances.
1t is that the Court of Common
Pleas, wherein all criminal cases are
tried, has too much work outside of
the criminal branch to keep UP to
date with the criminal calendar. En-
braced in the Common Pleas Court
is the Court of Oyer and Terminer,
in which branch murder trials are
held; Court of Quarter Sessions, in
which criminal cases are tried by
jury; Special Sessions Court, where
the right to trial by jury is waived
by the prisoner; Orphans Court,
where all matters relating to litiga
ton over wills, estates. guardian
ships, etc, are adjudicated, and the
Juvenile Court, where the cases Of
children under the age of 16 years are
handled.
Besides all these matters, the two
judges for Essex county. Judge Will
lam P. Martin and Judge Harry v.
Osborne, have since the first of July,
1911, been required % devo-e time 20
the hearing of cases brought under
the employees liability act, while not
infrequently a half day or more has
to be devoted to hearings i'll lunacy
cases. Another thing that hampers
the judges in disposing of the crimi-
nal calendar is that tw3 days a
month are devoted to hearing petit
tons for naturaliza ton Of foreigners
who desire to become citizens.
Both Judge Martin and Judge Os-
borne work hard and 10 their rest
to keep the court work up, but the
fact remains that there is LOO much
work for two judges. There is pienty
of work in Essex county in criminal
matters alone to keep .he two judges
busy. The only solution seems to
be in the creation of q th;rd branch
of the Court of Common Pleas and
the appointment of a third sudge. A
sample weeks calendar of the Com
mon Pleas Court is like this:
The Weeks Calendar.
Monday, sentence day for one
judge; trial of criminal cases by the
other.
Tuesday, criminal trials by both
judges with the exception of two
Tuesdays in each month devoted 10
naturalization of would-be citizens.
Wednesday, criminal trials by both
judges.
Thursday, criminal trials by one
judge; trial of liability cases by the
other. Qn many weeks Thursday is
devoted to liability cases by both
judges. this week being one exam
ple).
Friday, Special Sessions trial by
one judge; Orphans Court matters
by the other.
Judge Martin devotes every Friday
afternoon to Juvenile Court cases
and it is generally and frequently {
and 9 o'clock at night before he has
finished.
From the above list it can be seer
that the time allotted to both judges
for Criminal Court work is limited tc
about five full court days a week fol-
the pair. Some weeks five and a halt
days are devoted to Criminal Court
work, but more often less than five
are given to that branch, as Orphan
Court matters involving estates that
are badly tangled sometimes take two
and even three days in hearing.
Another Judge Needed.
The only solution seems to be in the
appointment of third judge who
could take over the handling of the
employees liability act cases, Orphan
1