512

The Green Bag

feet argument of counsel. In their anxiety to achieve a victory, counsel yield to the temptation of stating the facts from the point of view most favorable to their client's interest. "Judges sometimes take themselves too seriously. They fear they will change the law if they incorrectly declare it. But if a collision occurs between their declaration and the law, the law does not suffer; they suffer." AN IMPORTANT COMMITTEE REPORT On Thursday morning the special committee appointed two years ago to consider the matter of unnecessary costs and delays in litigation submitted a report in which it advocated a gradual but sweeping reform in judicial procedure. The committee re ported satisfactory progress in bringing to the attention of Congress proposed laws to author ize the appointment of official stenographers for United States courts and to fix their com pensation, to limit the setting aside of verdicts on error unless the error complained of shall appear to have resulted in a miscarriage of justice, and to permit the use of authorized printed copies of records in appealing cases, instead of written or typewritten manuscripts. REORGANIZATION OF STATE COURTS Further, the committee outlined the gen eral principles on which it considered a reorganization of state courts should even tually be effected, saying in substance:— The whole judicial power of each state, at least for civil causes, should be vested in one great court of which all tribunals should be branches, depart ments or divisions. The business as well as the judicial administration of this court should be thoroughly organized so as to prevent not merely waste of judicial power, but all needless clerical work, duplication of papers and records and the like, thus obviating expense to litigants and cost to the public. ONLY ONE COURT FOR CIVIL CAUSES TO EACH STATE This court should have three divisions:— 1—County courts, including municipal, having exclusive jurisdiction of petty cases. 2—Superior court of first instance, with exclu sive original and general jurisdiction in equity and at law, in probate and administration and in divorce. 3—A single ultimate court of appeal. All judges should be judges of the whole court, eligible and liable to sit in any locality. Super vision of administration should be committed to one high official of the court responsible for failure to utilize the judicial power of the state effectively. In like manner the business administration of

the court should be organized, with the clerical and stenographic forces under the control of a responsible officer. . . . We have carried decentralization of courts to such an extreme that in many jurisdictions the clerks are practically independent functionaries over whom courts have little real control. . . . There is much unnecessary duplication of papers; judicial records are needlessly prolix and unduly expensive. . . . ADVANTAGES OF CENTRALIZATION Petty causes demand good judges no less than causes involving larger sums. The judges to whom such actions are committed ought to be of such caliber, that but one review should be necessary, and that confined to questions of law. The advan tages of such an organization are nine:— 1—A real judicial department would be created. 2—The waste of judicial power involved in our present system of separate courts with hard and fast personnel would cease. 3—The bad practice of throwing out cases to be begun over again because started in the wrong place would be done away with. 4—The great and unnecessary expense involved in transfer of cases would be done away with, obviating necessity of transcripts, bills of excep tions, certificates of evidence, and the like. 5—All technicalities, intricacies and pitfalls of appellate procedure would be done away with 6—It would do away with the unfortunate inno vation upon the common law by which venue is a place where an action must be begun, rather than a place where it is to be tried, so that a mistake may defeat an action entirely. 7—It would obviate conflicts between judges of co-ordinate jurisdiction. 8—It would allow judges to become specialists in the disposition of particular classes of litigation. 9—It would bring about better control of the administrative officers connected with judicial ad ministration. ABOLISH THE FEE SYSTEM The committee would abolish the fee system, proposing:— All clerks and other employees of courts and all persons having permanently to do in any way with the administration of justice should be compen sated by fixed salaries, and all fees collected should be paid into the public treasury. This, in the opinion of the committee, would drive money-making out of the clerkships, curb the ambitions of the politicians to hold such jobs, and remove from the office the sus picion that those administering justice are governed by a desire to earn fees. The committee is also paying attention to official stenographers, their earnings and their ways. The draft of the bill which has been prepared provides that the compensation for services and the price for transcripts and copies shall be fixed in each district by the Circuit Court, and that the sum to be paid