Evening star., 1929-11-17
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

r OW the much-complained-o
laws delay" in this country
could be efficiently eliminated.
i i the court docketS more
promptly cleared, time and ex-
pense consumed in the taking of much
Irrelevant testimony saved the higher
professional standing achieved by those
engaged in pleading cases has been pro-
posed by Assistant Attorney General
George r. Farnum and is receiving
widespread consideration in law jour-
nails and among the legal profession.
The matter was first brought to the
attention of the Federal Bar AsSocia-
ton, composed of lawyers engaged in
various and specialized phases Of legal
work throughout the United States
Government service, by Mr.. Farnum,
who had just returned from Europe,
where he had been representing the
United States in foreign claims cases
involving hundreds of millions of dol
lars. Many members of Congress who
are well known lawyers have become
deeply interested in his suggestions.
Explains English System.
After explaining the division in Eng
land of the profession into those who
are primarily confined to what might be
called office practice" known as solici-
tors, and those engaged exclusively in
the trial Of cases, called "barristerS, "
Mr.. Farnum has drawn certain COM
parsons between that procedure and
the system in vogue in the United
States, somewhat to the disadvantage
of this country.
The English system, he explains, is
the result of years. of development.
The Inns Of Court, in which all barris-
terS are matriculated, today consists of
bn Afuaf 49, he Ia
the Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn and
Gray'S Inn. These Inns can be traced
back to the last of the thirteenth or
beginning Of the fourteenth century.
Naturally, Farnum says, their customs
and practices are based upon traditions,
strengthened by the well known con-
servatism Of the English nation.
When our country was settled, he
points out, the establishment of legal
institutions in our midst, comparable to
those which had grown up through the
/, centuries in England, was impracti-
cable. 1t would be equally so today, he
emphasizes, to attempt to change our
own legal institutions, which have de-
veloped to meet our own peculiar needs,
into any sort of strict and complete
conformity to English models. How
ever, he argues, the division of the Eng
liSh lawyers into solicitors and barris-
ters certainly leads to the acquisition
among the latter of an extensive expe-
rience and to the development of a
high degree of expertness and skill in
the trial Of court cases. That, of
course, he says, is the natural result
Of body of men specializing in the
handling of litigation.
Holds Trials Too PrOtracted.
While in America in recent years
there has been some tendency in the
larger communities toward some special
lZation between court and office prac-
tice. the average Office lawyer is free to
take a hand in the conduct of court
proceedings when he SO desires. and he
does so not infrequently. The result Is,
he abserves, that large part, If not the
majority of cases in America are tried
in whole or in part by men who have
never been trained in the science of ad-
vocacy and who have never had ex-
perience enough to acquire even mod
crate degree CT technique in the work.
with the consequence that our trials are
usually grossly r-protracted, much
time Is consumed wrangling over the
admisSability of evidence by lawyers who
have no adequate knowledge of the laws
of evidence or the science of judicial
proof, a mass of immaterial matter Is
large measure the real issues, and there
is a greatly increased liability of the
trial court committing errors which may
lead to a reversal of the case in the ap-
pellate court
He gives as a concrete example the
following: Some years ago a man
named Seddons and his wife were trieo
in London for the murder of a Miss
Barrows, who lodged with them. by the
administration of arsenic. SeddonS' was
convicted and his wife acquitted. The
case was entirely circumstantial and the
motive assigned was that the woman
was murdered by SeddonS to present the
discovery of his fraudulent appropria-
ton of her property, consisting in a
large measure of notes on the Bank of
England. In the course of the trial 1t
was necessary to unravel the details of
many dealings between him and the
deceased and to trace the disappearance
of the bank notes. All the circum-
stances surrounding the parties and
leading up to the commission of the
crime were gone into with great thor
oughness.
Trial Lasted Four Days.
Having read the verbatim report, Mr.
Farnum, recalls that the trial did not
l