562
The Green Bag
Bar Association some twenty-five years since, and the most searching investiga
tion was made by a committee composed of such men as David Dudley Field, Judge
John F. Dillon, Col. James O. Broad head and others. It was found that the average length of a civil lawsuit varied in the different states from a year and a half to six years. The committee re ported that if it were possible to put
into ten words the chief causes for pres ent delay and uncertainty in our judicial administration, they would say: "Com plex procedure, inadequate judiciary, procrastination, retrials,
unreasonable
appeals, uncertain law." The subject has been frequently dis cussed in the American Bar Association
really preoeded England in simplifying our rules of evidence and in the adoption of codes of procedure. But the legisla tive reorganization of the English courts under the Judiciary Act of 1873 was care fully prepared and matured by the best
legal minds of the country before enact ment into law. Under this act, not only
were the ancient forms of action abol ished, but also the ancient courts, and provision is made, as far as it can be
made by legislative act, for the fusion of law and equity. While the right of trial by jury is preserved in all matters appropriate for jury trials, it also is
provided that wherever there is a conflict between the rules of law and the princi ples of equity, the latter shall prevail.
since that time. A special committee was again appointed in 1907, charged with the duty of considering evils in judicial administration and remedial
Any division of the court may grant an injunction, when it shall appear that it is
procedure, and suggesting remedies and formulating proposed laws. This com mittee confined its recommendations to
and in substitution for such injunction. It is provided by statute that the holder
the federal procedure, and recommended that the finding of a jury upon issues of fact should only be set aside when it was
clear to the appellate court that some error had intervened which caused a
miscarriage of justice. The general subject of delay and un
certainty in the administration of jus tice has been discussed in numerous bar associations and in the organs of public opinion throughout the country. Pub
just and convenient that such order shall be made, and may award damages for
of a promissory note or other negotiable instrument may have summary judg ment, unless the defendant show upon
oath reasonable grounds of defense. In the criminal prosecutions, the contrast between the English procedure and our own is even more noticeable, and has been the subject of frequent comment. It is true that until recently there was no
right of appeal in criminal causes in England.
But even with that, as was
also been directed to the very great con
forcibly illustrated in the recent Crippen case, the delays which seem necessarily incident to a criminal prosecution in
trast presented between the administra tion of justice in the English courts and
this country, where the defendant has means to pay for a defense, and the
lic as well as professional opinion has
those of this country, and the vastly
technicalities incident to the drawing
greater expedition in the procedure of
of indictments, with which we are so familiar in this country, are unknown in England.
the courts in the former than in the
latter. This contrast is the more notice able in that we have inherited the com mon law and the jury system for the trial of issues of fact from England, and we
It may be said generally, therefore, that the procedure in England, in both
civil and criminal actions, is far simpler
