Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/243

Rh apparent how frequently the law's delay in the case of the ordinary man must defeat the ends of justice. So uncertain and expensive is justice secured at the hands of lawyers and courts that many men of affairs settle their controversies by arbitration. The ordinary man, unless of a contentious nature, often finds the cost of justice prohibitory. One result is to encourage aggression by wrongdoers. In trials before Justices of the Peace, the defendant frequently permits judgment to be rendered by default, and a year or two may elapse before the case is tried in a higher court. Needless appeals and retrials may result in the lapse of a much longer time before the case is finally decided. "Litigation for the sake of litigation ought to be discouraged. But this is the only form of petty litigation which survives the discouragements involved in American judicial organization and procedure." Moreover, many members of the legal profession to their discredit are averse to changing a system which inures to their personal advantage. It is little wonder, consequently, that among the well-established planks in the platforms of the Socialist party is the demand for free justice. To the end of remedying the existing condition the people of Ohio, in 1912, provided for one trial and one review by amending the state constitution. In the fourth place, the courts are not organized on a business basis. The records which disclose the comparative amounts of work done by the different members of the bench are usually sadly deficient. The Municipal Court of Chicago "is the only court, as yet, which is so organized as to be able to furnish adequate statistics of judicial administration." There is too much piecemeal dealing with cases by judges whose jurisdictions overlap. As many as twenty-two different justices have heard different proceedings in a single cause. There is a lack of supervising officers whose duty it should be to place the several members of the bench where they can do the most effective work. The judges in the circuit and superior courts of Chicago "draw lots to see who shall hear chancery cases. There is no possibility of specialization. They do their work in the criminal court for a year at a time in rotation." The Courts of Common Pleas in Philadelphia "are split up into five air-tight compartments, each an absolutely distinct court," with no possibility of transferring cases from one court to the other. In some courts the time of lawyers and litigants is needlessly wasted by calling cases from day to day that are too far down the list to stand any chance of trial. Another mistake lies in depending upon incompetent tribunals to dispense justice in petty cases, such as those presided over by the ordinary Justice of the Peace. Individual judges of the same court