The Idaho Springs siftings-news. (Idaho Springs, Colo.) 1905-19??, 1915-07-17

On last Friday our fellow towns
man, Mr.. f. L. Regeunitter. de-
lvered an address at the annual
meeting of the Colorado Bar AS
ISOLATION at Colorado Springs.
His subject was the Court rules
acS of 1913 and the Supreme Court
Rules OF 1914.
MIR. Regennitter is an authority
ou judicial procedure in Colorado,
and we are indebted to him for
tire use OF his manuscript, from
which we have made the following
excerpts to STOW the sc ieral # (,
ot the new statute.
''The Legislature has, by this
Court Rules Act of 1913, entrust-
ed to he Supreme Court the duty
OF legislating upon the subject of
practice and procedure in the
L.,
1914, accepted the trust by part
performance, after year of
deliberation. They are now re-
spOnsible, morally at least, for
every defect and imperfection in
our rules of practice and procedure
IN courts of record; for every mis-
carriage, of justice, civil or crimi-
nal, in those courts. which can be
attributed to vicious or defectiv.
rules of practice and procedure"
tor which, heretofore, judges and
lawyers have criticised the Legisla-
ture. Not only this, the Supreme
Court can act more expeditiously
since it is a sma Ter body and can
practically go into legislative ses-
sion at any time.
In bis paper Mr., Regennitter
also criticized many of the Supren e
Court rules especially upon the
grouud of uncertainty. In thus
he said:
There is want of certainty in
almost every rule. Certainty is
the father of right and the mother
OF justice, - says Pope, and it is
trite learning that the abstract JUS
tice OF a rule of law is, in many
cases, not nearly so important as
that the rule shal be certain"
In closing, he made the following
significant observations:
''The important things are to sim
pllty The practice, to make justice
more swift and certain, to lessen
the pitfalls and obstacles by which
justice may be delayed or defeated
There is room for much improve
ment, which wou d relieve the
practitioner from much attention to
procedure and permit him to use
the time thus saved for other pur-
poses, thus serving more clients at
less expense to them with better
results than he now can.
Unless the Supreme Court shall
better perform this duty than it has
we may see the Legislature revok-
ing its commission. AMI not without
good reason"
There was large attendance,
and the discussion of the snbjec
was very geneia al aud animated be
cause of the far reaching effect o
the new departure i'll the act o
1913 of turning over to the Suprem,
Court the duty of leglslating on
the matter OF procedure in al
courts of record, the Legislature
having heretofore prescribed tn
rules.
Although the subject sshas beel
much discussed by members o
the Bar at many meetings during
the past two years, it was freel
and frankly stated by judges an
lawyers from Denver an else
where that Mr.. Regennitter's pa
per was The first satisfactory con
sideration of the subject.
The Association also listened t
addresses on other interest1n
subjects including the contraban
phase of the European war.
Hon. John D. Fleming, of Bou
der, Dean of the Law Departmer
of the University of Colorado, wa
elected President for the comm
year.