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The Green Bag

uncertainty, he said, characterized the administration of justice. He had inves tigated conditions in the five states, where the delegates had found nothing to criticize, and, taking cases at random, he declared, fully one-half had required from two to four years to be decided. As a remedy for present conditions Dean Wigmore advocated that the courts be given power to make their own rules of procedure. There should be a general revision, but the courts are better qualified than the Legislature to make it, he declared. Albert D. Early, chairman of the com mittee on law reform, introduced a reso lution which was unanimously passed, that the report be presented to the Su preme Court of Illinois with the recom mendation that it do as much as pos sible toward putting in effect the court rules outlined, and also that a bill be presented in the Legislature embodying reforms requiring legislative action. In substance, the jurists and lawyers who spoke agreed upon these proposed reforms: Discard the common law and legisla tive code methods of regulating court procedure. Leave the matter with the judge; let him use his common sense. Do not limit the admissibility of evi dence by rules of procedure which have long since become antique. Spurred on by a vigorous speech by Judge Marcus Kavanagh of the Superior Court, who declared that many evils and abuses in court procedure ought to be remedied, and who declared that the Supreme Court had avowedly overruled itself 150 distinct times, the Association took steps to call a conference of judges, bar associations and judicial bodies, for immediate adoption of a reform pro gram, and to consider a revision of exist ing rules of court. This action was taken after the com

mittee of law reform, though its chair man, Edgar B. Tolman, had submitted a report with the following recommenda tions: "That the bar associations of each county and the members of the bar of each judicial district, where there is no bar association, meet at the earliest practicable date to consider the revi sion of the existing rules of court and the drafting of additional rules, with a view of putting into operation the principles of procedural reform embodied in the 'conference bill' to be introduced at the next session of the Legislature." Some of the reforms proposed were the following : "That pleadings in cases at law shall state concisely and with reasonable cer tainty the real cause of action and the real defense, and shall be verified. "Rules of court should be few in num ber, clear and simple in expression, with out hampering bench and bar by hard and fast rules. "They should be uniform in principle and essence, so that there may be har mony in practice in different localities. "Leave shall be given to either party in a suit to file written interrogations to be answered under oath, touching any matter pertinent to the controversy, such answers to be received in evidence. "Rules of court should obviate unnec essary expenditure of time and energy by forbidding the doing of useless things. They should reduce to a minimum that delay in the administration which amounts to a denial of justice. "They should seek to make the admin istration of justice certain and the judg ments of courts stable by affording an opportunity of preventing or curing errors during the trial, rather than by an appeal and a retrial. "They should reduce to a minimum the consequences of an error of venue by facilitating the transfer to the right