Procedural Reform in California A lawyer who invents or manufactures defenses for prisoners, or who procures their acquittal by the practice of any
manner of deceit, cajolery, willful dis tortion or misrepresentation of facts, or any other means not within the spirit as well as the letter of the law, is to be
reckoned as an enemy to society more dangerous than the criminal himself;
while successes at the bar won by such methods can never be the basis of
21
of crime, or those acting in their behalf,
of any improper or corrupt means. In the criminal law it must be re membered that the people rightfully demand, and are entitled to, not only
the conviction of the guilty but the acquittal of the innocent as well. To the extent of a full recognition of the foregoing principles, the feelings of the attorney charged with the prose cution or with the defense may properly
desirable professional reputations, but,
enter into his‘client’s cause, but beyond
on the contrary, are badges of infamy. Whenever an attorney’s professional
this he should avoid bringing his per
obligation compels him to bring about
beliefs into a criminal cause.
sonality or his personal feelings or
the acquittal of a person charged with crime through the advancement of a legal proposition foreign to the guilt or innocence of the accused, his success
is to be regarded both by him and by his professional brethren rather as the culmination of a regrettable duty than as a professional triumph. Lawyers representing the people in public prosecutions should use every
XII. Paramount Ethical Obligation As a final and emphatic canon in this, its Code of Ethics, the Bar Association
of San Francisco admonishes the pro fession that its members are officers of the court charged with the high duty of aiding in the administration of justice,
and that this duty enters into and must
be recognized as the dominant factor
proper means to lay before the jury
in the interpretation of any obligation
the cause of the people, and should strive to prevent miscarriages of justice through the exercise by persons accused
interests of his clients or to maintain suc
resting upon the lawyer to further the cessfully their causes.
A San Francisco Program of Procedural Reform HE Bar Association of San Francisco has shown itself one of the most
progressive and alert organizations of the kind in the country by the interest it has shown in the subjects of procedural reform, improvements in judicial ad ministration and professional ethics. Within a. short time the Association has adopted, substantially without change, recommendations
ofiered by a
com
Procedure, it has also adopted the suggestions of another committee con
templating improvements in the methods of the Superior Court, and it has unanimously adopted the report of still another committee submitting a code of professional ethics. The committee which offered the recommendations regarding the reform of civil and criminal procedure was made
mittee calling for considerable amend up of some of the most distinguished meat; to the California Code of Civil California lawyers, O. K. Cushing'
