Evening star., 1929-11-17
NEW TRIAL PROCEDURE
IS DECLARED ESSENTIAL
Plan to Eliminate Legal Delay in U. S.
Would Embrace Adoption of
Many English Ideas.

which there were not In excess of the
same number of objections to the adj
mission of testimony. all of which were
disposed of without discussion. The
Crown was represented by Lord Read
ing, then Sir Rufus Isaacs, the attorney
general; Seddons was represented by the
leading criminal advocate Of the Eng
lish bar. now deceased, Sir Edward
Marshall Hall, and Mrs. Seddons by an
other harriSter, who took afole ,Subordi-
nate to counsel for her husband.
II do not think 1 am exaggerating,"
Farnum declared, when / say that the
trial of this case in America would have
consumed three or four weeks and would
have developed 300 to 500 objections to
testimony and exceptions based thereon.
This striking difference would be the re-
suit. almost entirely. of the work OF
counsel OF course, the English judges,
on the whole, exercise little frecr
supervision over the course Of a trial
than their American brethren, but the
barristers are so trained that, to j
superficial observer the Illusion is some
times given that the British judge is
playing a less active role than Is the
case in America.
"Strange as 1t may sound" he con-
tinues, Il am really convinced that
many lawyers do not consider advocacy
to be a real science and its practice q
difficult art. Unfortunately, so far as
know, there are no courses which teach
the prospective barrister the rudimentS
of this science. Neither are there any
adequate treatises from which an Ameri-
can aspirant can learn the funda-
mentals. He must. therefore, In large
measure learn for himself in the hard
and difficult school of experience. This
means that for the ordinary mortal+-
and most of us come into that class--a
daily experience of years in the courts
is necessary before he attains any real
degree of proficiency In his art.
Cross Examination Is Art.
ar suppose the average attorney would
concede that an opening statement in
a trial is a rather elementary perform
ance. Far from it, judging from the
daily models. Consider a moment how
MANY of us have really heard an excel
lent opening statement. Why, in one OF
the last cases tried in the State Courts
of Massachusetts, before entering the
Federal service, represented DEFEND
ant who had pleaded certain atnrmat1ve
defense in support OF a general denial:
In opening, after the plaintiffs counsel
had outlined the facts in support OF his
prima facie case, he proceeded to antici-
pate and discuss at considerable length
the affirmative defense which ne ex-
pected I would stand upon. And there
YOU have 1t. It Is unnecessary to multi
ply examples, but brief reference TO
the art of cross-examination is impor-
tant. ~. q.
IF one were deducing the basis Of
the art of cross-examination from the
run of daily examples one would be
almost forced to conclude that two OF
the principal objects of croSs-exam1na-
ton were: First, to emphasize the
testimony on direct examination by az
fording the witness an opportunity Tor
repeating his entire testimonial nara
ton; and, second, to indulge In the
rather fascinating, although altogether
inept, practice of shooting great
variety of questions at the witness with
out the slightest idea of what the char.
acter of the answer is likely to be-"
do not think" he warns, that this
sort of procedure is confined entirely
to youthful members Of the bar by any
means"
He also calls attention to the fact
that there are differences in the tenn
peraments of men which render them
more fltted to do certain types OF legal
work than others. There are excellent
lawyers, he says, to whom the court
room is a never-ending source OF terror,
and there are others for whom ONCE
practice Is an unmitigated bore. The
former will never qualify as barristers.
although they may appear in that role
on occasions under the present dtpen-
sation, Mr.. Farnum says; and the latter
afford very poor material from which
to develop good solicitors.
Urges Specialized Trial Lawyers.
While he asserts that the English.
system cannot be imposed in its entirety
upon the American profession, he does
claim that it is possible and would be
beneficial to foster and encourage to
greater degree than now exists the de-
velopment of a body Of lawyers spe-
cialized in the trial of cases and dis
couraging the participation in trials
of men whose practice Is largely con-
fined to office business.
Possibly the time may come when we
can accomplish this by legislation, he
predicts. He expresses sincere belief
that If we had here in the United
States, as in England, body of highly
trained professional men. specializing In
the trial of cases, it would go far in the
long run to remedy "the criticisms
which we hear on all sides in respect to
the manner in which our trials are con-
Quoted" He does not claim it would
be a panacea for all the ills that litiga-
tion is heir TO, but 1t would help q
lott