294
THE GREEN BAG
nesses, or convenience of parties are taken care of by agreement of counsel to pass a case subject to call, to a day certain, the stipulation for which must be filed the day before a case is reached for trial. The rules and system are quite simple, but space forbids a more detailed descrip tion of it.1 In actual practice it is found that no serious difficulty is experienced in keeping in touch with cases, and learning when they will be reached, in avoiding con flict of engagements, of preventing continu ances for the term, or of keeping judges and juries fully supplied with cases at a minimum of expense and delay to parties and witnesses. It is simply a question thereafter of how much work a judge and a jury can do or is willing to do during the term of court. Its merit is best shown by the results it has accomplished. In the year before it was adopted, 7610 cases were called, of which 1218 were continued for the term, S S S3 were set for another day, and the bulk of those not tried. There were then only five trial judges; and the average num ber of cases tried or disposed of by each during a term was about fifty. The trial of causes was three years in arrears; and growing rapidly worse. The first term after the system was inau gurated showed an increase of forty per cent in the cases disposed of. The number of cases disposed of by each individual judge averaged for the next seven con secutive terms seventy per cent greater, and at no time has fallen below forty per cent. The population and business has increased greatly in the county since, and the number of judges has also been increased; but it is estimated that the addition in judges alone, granting what is improbable, that with each
added judge the percentage of cases dis posed of by each would not have dimin ished, would not have taken care of the new business. But under this system, notwith standing the increasing business, the arrear ages are being gradually reduced until a cause in the usual course can be tried in a year, and the assignment clerk estimates that in two to three years more, without new judges, the courts will be up with the work. The feasible remedies for the law's delays, it seems to me, consist in the following suggestions. 1. The right to try a case de novo on the facts more than once, and to have more than one review of the same case for errors of law, may be limited and restricted; but I do not think it ought to be done until the state provides a court of first instance, in either case, that is capable and efficient. 2. The practical immunity of the losing party from expense by reason of his false clamor which now exists, would, if changed and the English system put in force, reduce the number of suits brought and appeals taken. Personally, I look with little favor on any reform which restricts the freedom of the individual in having his grievance tried out, and tried right by a capable court; for it must be remembered that poverty has enough handicaps already in a law suit, and that the average citizen has probably no more than one case in a lifetime, and that one is to him always a matter of vital importance. 3. The general denial and sham defenses to gain time might profitably be denied; and to accomplish this remedy the rules of English Civil Procedure to which Mr. Crane calls attention, would, I think, be efficient. 4. The system for handling business 1 This system is the invention of A. C. Dustin, which has been adopted in this countv, now Assignment Clerk of the Courts. It has been put in operation in several other cities, and with and partly explained in this article, will like results. He will cheerfully furnish detailed ensure in large cities the hearing and trial of as many cases as the judges are able information to any one wishing to try it.
