Evening star., 1937-03-12
SENATE D. c. GROUP
T0STUDY ALTERING
COURT PROCEDURE
Convenes Probably Next
Week to Take Up Two
Proposals.
SMALL CLAIMS BENCH
TO GET CONSIDERATION
Juvenile Tribunal Law Modern
izing Also Due for Examination
by Committee.
BY j. A. O'LEARY.

The Senate District Committee will
be called together in few days, prob
ably early next week, to consider two
changes in local court procedure,
Chairman King announced today.
One is the bill to modernize and
improve the Juvenile Court law, and
the other is the measure introduced
yesterday by King to establish a small
claims and conciliation branch in
Municipal Court.
The basic object of the small claims
tribunal is to offer individuals forum
for voluntary arbitration of financial
disputes involving not more than S100,
when the parties wish to avoid formal
court trial
Informal Procedure.
In this new branch pleadings would
be devoid of technicalities, and proce-
dure made informal, inexpensive and
speedy, Senator King explained. Mu-
nicipal Court judges would take turns
serving in this branch, and at least
one night session week would be re-
quired for the benefit of those who
could not otherwise present their
claims.
Following settlement of claims
through this new process, the court
would have discretionary power to
permit installment payments on the
judgment.
The proceedings would start with
the filing of simple statement of the
claim, which the plaintiff could pre-
pare himself. or request the clerk Of
the small claims tribunal to prepare
The clerk, however, could not perform
this service for a corporation, part
nership or association. The fee for
filing claims would be reduced from
sl25 to ST.
In place of formal summons the
defendant would be served with a SIM
pie statement of the claim. The no.
tice could be served by registered mail
or by an individual, as we'll as by mar
shal, and the notice would advise the
recipient he could appear with or
without an attorney.
Cancellation First Effort.
The first function of the judge
would be to endeavor to have the par
ties settle the claim by Cancellation.
II this failed the hearing would pro-
ceed. At this point the bill directs
that the proceedings be conducted so
as to do substantial justice according
to rules of substantive law, but not
bound by statutory provisions or rules
of practice, procedure, pleading or
evidence, except those provisions which
relate to privileged communications.
Cases in other branches of Munich
pal Court could be transferred to the
conciliation branch when all the par
ties agree to that course Otherwise
1t would not interfere with the con-
duct of cases involving more than
800 in the other branches of the
court
Senator King emphasized also that
1t does not detract from the present
right of review in the Court of Ap-
peals, nor interfere with the right of
jury trial. The proposed procedure
has been successful elsewhere and
has been adopted on a State wide
basis in Is States, according to Senator
King.
The plan has been under discussion
here since last July, when it was pro-
posed by Judge Nathan Cayton of the
Municipal Court. Senator Kings bill
follows the same general lines, except
that Judge Cayton originally proposed
a $50 limit on cases in the small
claims branch.
The companion measure was intro
duced in the House today by Chairman
Norton of the District Committee. It
was promptly referred to her COM
mittee for consideration.
Bar WithhoIds Approval.
The proposal has failed to win the
approval of the District Bar Associa-
ton. At recent meeting the Bar
Association announced a plan of its
own, to create a committee of 25 men,
bers to give assistance at Municipal
Court to persons who otherwise would
not be able to take their cases to court
The Juvenile Court measure, ad-
vocated for number of years, aims
to establish chancery or equity pro-
cedure for the present criminal pro-
cedure OF that court. The bill passed
the House recently, but since that
time Senate Subcommittee has taker
under advisement series of amend
ments, designed principally to make
the District corporation counsels Of
flee the legal agency to consider the
information and preliminary inves-
tigation in juvenile cases, for the pur.
pose of determining whether the court
should take formal Jurisdiction.