Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/130

 Good and Bad Law Reporting. and especially of those filed in our over worked appellate courts, where the judges are elected for short terms and are turned out of office as soon as they become trained and practiced at their work. Moreover, it often happens that the printed brief and argu ment of counsel will be a thoroughly wroughtout, able, and scholarly performance, which may have involved the labor of weeks or even months; while his case is brushed away, in the opinion of the court, by the weak conceit of an incapable judge. In cases of this kind, it would be a great gain to the profession if they could have the benefit of the lawyer's brief and argument; and it would be little loss to them, or to mankind, if the opinion and judgment of the court were sunk out of sight. The writer has known in his experience many cases of this kind.1 V. Descr1pt1on of the Part1es 1n Jud1c1al Op1n1ons. — The judges of ap pellate courts can also do much toward facilitating a clear understanding of their decisions. They can, for example, abolish the reprehensible practice of treating a writ of error as an independent suit, under which the party prosecuting the writ becomes the plaintiff in the appellate court, although he may have been the defendant in the court below. They can abolish the equally repre hensible practice of referring, in their opin ions, to the parties as plaintiff in error or defendant in error, or as appellant or ap1 A printed argument of the late George Dixon, of Ten nessee, came into the hands of the writer some years ago. The case was important; large interests were involved; it related to the parol dedication of land to the uses of the public; it exhausted the subject as it rested upon the judicial authorities of that day. After receiving this very great aid from counsel, the Supreme Court of Tennessee decided the case in favor of his client without even writing an opinion! Briefs and arguments of the most finished character, upon which counsel have expended considerable periods of time, carefully studying and discriminating every authority cited by them, have often been brushed away by hurried judges without even being read, and the case has been examined and decided and the opinion written in a single day. In such cases, if the profession could only have the brief, they could well spare the opinion.

109

pellee. They should refer to the parties in their opinions, in all cases, as the plaintiff or plaintiffs and the defendant or defendants, so as to keep in the mind of the person reading their opinions a clear idea of the alignment of the parties as they stood in the court below. The practice alluded to turns judicial opinions into puzzles, and burdens and oppresses the mind of the reader with the effort of trying to keep in view the rela tion of the parties to each other. VI. Abol1sh1ng Roman Numerals. — Among the obvious improvements in what may be regarded as the mere mechanism of reporting, is the abolition of Roman numer als. Roman numerals are like words derived from a foreign language; they do not catch the eye, or fasten themselves upon the understanding as quickly as arabic figures do. The reason is that arabic figures, based as they are upon the decimal system of numeration and notation, appeal readily to the understanding, and besides, are the kind of representatives of numbers most com monly in use. Mistakes in citations are often traceable to the use of Roman numer als in designating the volumes and chapters of law books. The use of these clumsy rep resentatives of numbers is due merely to that stolid conservatism in which the uni versities take the lead. There is absolutely no sense or propriety in it. VII. Des1gnat1ng the Volume at the TOP of Each Page. — Another important help to the practical use of law reports is the practice of designating the volume and the report in some manner in the head-lines of the pages. The best way is for the court to prescribe the manner in which the reports shall be cited, and for the abbreviated cita tion to be printed in brackets at the inside corners of every odd and even page. To omit altogether the designation of the volume in the head-lines of the pages, is unpardon able. I have a heavy bill of damages against