Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/292

 The Kansas Revised Code of Civil Procedure is materially diminished. The leading idea here as throughout the code is to minimize matters of form and require the administration of substantial justice without unnecessary delay. The rules of evidence are changed in some important particulars. Heretofore witnesses could only be required to attend in the county of their residence. They may now be required to attend in any county of the state on tender of the mileage allowed by law and fee for one day's attendance, but the cost of such attendance will be taxed against the party who subpoenas the witness, unless otherwise ordered by the court. The use of affidavits on the trial of actions is a very important innovation. Either party may prevent the use of affidavits by his adversary by simply denying the truth of the matter con tained in them, or by asking the privi lege of cross-examination. It is believed, however, that in making formal proof, especially by witnesses of unquestioned veracity, much expense and annoyance will be saved by allowing the use of affidavits. It is often a matter of very great inconvenience to witnesses to be required to wait around a court house to give some brief statement, which might as well be shown by an affidavit that could be taken at any convenient time or place. It not infre quently happens that the loss and incon venience occasioned to witnesses by attendance at court is of more moment than the matter in dispute between the parties. On the other hand ex parte affidavits are unsatisfactory where it is necessary to call out all the facts within the knowledge of the witness. The pur pose of the change was of course to secure the advantages of an inexpensive method of procuring testimony and at the same time guard against the wellknown dangers of that kind of evidence.

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In the authentication of records of the courts of foreign countries the re quirement of the certificate of the officer who has the custody of the principal seal of the government has been dropped out and a certificate of the clerk and one of the judges is all that is required. The old rule with reference to books of account was very narrow. Now sub stantially all entries relating to commer cial and statistical matters may be admitted in evidence merely on proof that they were made in the regular course of business, at or near the time of the transaction. The most important changes relate to the record of the proceedings at the trial and the review of judgments of the trial courts on appeal. In the early days, when notes of the testimony of witnesses were taken down in longhand by the lawyers and the judge, it was a sensible practice to make bills of excep tions to preserve the questions of law raised at the trial. Cases for review were also adapted to the necessities of the situation. The use of official stenog raphers, who preserve not only all the testimony of all the witnesses, but often all that is said in the progress of the trial by court or counsel, while very convenient and helpful in many ways, has its disadvantages. It makes it pos sible to try a case solely with a view to injecting error into the record, and by objecting and excepting to everything done by the adverse party to raise a multitude of technical questions. After the lawyer gets his transcript of the stenographer's notes, he can study his objections and exceptions at his leisure, and assign error in the reviewing court on any matter that seems doubtful. Under the old practice only those ad verse rulings deemed of importance would ordinarily be incorporated in a bill of exceptions. It not infrequently