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Notes on Judicial Organization and Procedure
Dodd, Walter
Dodd, Walter
Abstract
The Judicial Council Movement. Woodrow Wilson wrote that no government is better than its courts, to which ex-President Taft replied that our judicial failure has been more outstanding than our failure in municipal government. The task of making our courts as efficient as possible is thus both an important and an urgent one. Many factors have contributed to the present charges of inefficiency, but none perhaps of greater weight than that of delay. This has been particularly true of the larger cities, with their principal trial courts as much as two years behind in their work. The jury system, both in its expense and delays and in its freedom from control by the courts, has been a frequent source of complaint. English and Canadian writers have been telling us that their juries are generally selected in a few minutes, and that almost never does it take more than half an hour. Having impanelled the jury, the case is disposed of expeditiously, even murder cases consuming but three or four days at most. In Detroit, a murder case was called just as a judge of the Ontario High Court arrived to hold the assize court directly across the river. The Canadian judge tried nearly thirty contested cases, divided equally between criminal and civil actions, sent nine persons to the penitentiary, and adjourned court while in Detroit the jury was still incomplete.