Evening star., 1939-08-13
Law Moves at Rapid Pace
Using New Pre- Trial Method
Trivialities and Mont Controversial Matters Are
Removed; Procedure Makes for Simplicity
and Reduces Costs
By WiIiam A. MiHen.

Three centuries back, Shakespeare's
Hamlet complained OF "the laws delay
and today this is still a common plant,
but now there are forces in the making
designed to speed up the tortoise law
and bring justice with harelike alactrity.
A new movement, with Supreme Court
and congressional sanction, is astir in
America.
Such is the new pre-trial procedure
that will whirl away the chaff of legal
technicalities and get down to the meaty
wheat Of the real issues If its sponsors
realize their goal. A number of key
cities in the Nation already have tried
the experiment and pronounced it
success.
AS more pioneers prove their points,
leading lawyers expect that the program
will spread to practically all the courts of
the land and justice will be on the march
in America.
What is this "pre-trial" procedure,
about which much will be heard in the
months and years that lie ahead?
That can probably best be answered
by one of its earliest advocates-a Judge
who had to plead with bench and bar for
the adoption of the new plan to make
justice just. Judge Joseph A. Moynihan
of the third judicial circuit of Michigan,
at Detroit, is as truly pioneer in this
field as was Marconi in radio, Edison
in electric light, Holland with the sub
marine. Judge Moynihan still is pioneer
ing, crusading for his cause, seeking to
speed up justice, the blind one, who
moves with funereal tread-at times.
Main Concern Higher Courts.
TOO long have we been concerned
about aid and assistance for the appel
late courts of our land, with little or
nothing being done by way of approach
ing the very serious problem of the long
delays occasioned in. the disposal of the
business in the nisi prius courts" says
Judge Moynihan.
'All we hear at our attendance at con-
ferences and meetings of our several bar
associations is what help can be rendered
to the higher courts and letting the trial
COulIS Sllll LOT themselves.
This problem can be largely overcome
by the undertaking of the establishment
of the system of pre-trial practice and
procedure in the several lower courts
This system makes for a much better
preparation of the case for trial and
consequently materially aids the higher
court in so far that many issues that
might find their way into the trial proper
are either conceded or stipulated by
counsel before going into the trial on the
merits, thus avoiding the necessity of
having the appellate court pass upon any
mistakes that the trial judge may make
with respect to these matters, which
otherwise might not be conceded in ad-
vance of the trial.
This efficient, modern practice has
many other virtues to commend it. First
OF all, its simplicity, in that the two
lawyers meet with judge who has the
authority to 60 into the entire case and
make decisions pertaining to the matters
and things that will be brought up dur
ing the course of the discussion by re-
spective counsel. There is nothing in the
practice that either lawyers or litigants
have to fear. 1t is just as easy for an
old-time practitioner to undertake as it
is for the recent graduate in law ad-
mitted to the bar. 1t is purely a discus
sion Of the disputed questions, stripping
ments and allowing the time of the trial
court, in the event that it is not settled
beforehand, to be spent on more perti-
nent matters than on the many i'm
material features which find their way
into the average law suit" declares Judge
Moynihan.
No Rights Withheld or Lost.
Another splendid feature that recon-
mends this practice is that no lawyer or
client is deprived of any single right he
possesses. In fact, it throws stronger
guard about the clients rights, in that
1t prevents the law suit being made the
subject of contest of wits between
counsel. and it brings prompt and
speedy decision on the real merits of
the question in dispute
"The preview of law suit serves
very useful purpose, in that it does away
with many fictitious issues that con-
stantly find their way into a law suit. 1t
also does away with great many of
the nuisance cases that are fast becom-
ing scandal to the legal profession.
because in the handling of this type of
litigation the pretrial judge can imme-
diately sense the reason for the filing
OF the same, and with a few judicious
statements can practically dispose of 1t
on the pretrial docket without its ever
going into the trial room.
I'm addition to the foregoing, thou
sands OF, settlements are made between
the parties themselves and their at
torneys after the first hearing on the
pretrial docket. 1t is more or less an
informal hearing that, with the adoption
OF it by many courts, is fast gaining
favor, not only with the bench, but with
the bar and the businessman who is
called upon to avail himself of the func-
tions of the court.
Another meritorious feature Of the
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