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3 Am. L. & Law. 1 (1941)

handle is hein.journals/amlandl3 and id is 1 raw text is: OHIO EDITION AMERICAN LAW AND AWYERS ewspaper Vol. 3 Cincinnati, Ohio, January 4, 1941. No. 1 Lists Points In Procedure Reform Plan Lawyer's Business Likely to Slip away If Methods not Improved, Judge Says VITAL TO DEMOCRACY TOO Omaha. Declaring that if the lawyer wishes to preserve his place in the business life of the country he must improve the administration of justice to bring it into harmony with that life, U. S. Circuit Judge John J. Parker, chair- man of the American Bar Associa- tion's committee on improving judi- cial procedure, outlined the commit- tee's program at the convention of the Nebraska State Bar Association here. Recalling that industrial accident claims were taken from the courts largely because of a belief that an administrative agency could handle them more efficiently, Judge Parker warned that if the lawyer imagines the present functioning of the courts is satisfactory, he is simply deluding himself. Where Improvement Needed The noted speaker said the pro- cedure of the courts rquires im- provement in the following respects: 1. There should be better judi- cial organization, with provision for proper administrative control in the courts themselves of the judicial ma- chinery, with the setting up of ju- dicial councils and conferences and with the vesting in the courts of the rule-making power for the regulation of procedure. 2. Trial by jury should be im- proved by the selection of better jurors through jury commissioners appointed by the courts, by restoring the common law power to the judge to aid and assist the jury, and by eliminating the general verdict in complicated cases. Trial Practice 3. Trial practice should be sim- plified after the pattern of the fed- eral rules and, where possible, those rules should be adopted as the prac- tice of the state, and the rules of evidence should be simplified and the admissibility of evidence left largely in the discretion of the trial judge. 4. The practice of administrative agencies and tribunals, with the method of reviewing their decisions, should be simplified with a view to preserving in their processes the principles of fair play and equal justice which is the heart of our free institutions. - 5. The technicalities and burdens of appellate practice should be abolished. Courts Are Shunned Judge Parker pointed out that business concerns today are willing (Continued on Page Eight) Bar To Take Up Auto Insurance, Discipline Issue Lively Discussion at New York Meeting Expected- Jackson to Be President New York. Compulsory automobile liability in- surance and the assumption of power by administrative agencies to dis. cipline attorneys will be two of the leading subjects for discussion at the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association, to be held here January 23-25. It is expected that John G. Jack- son, New York, will be elected president of the association, succeed- ing Warnick J. Kernan, Utica, and that Charles W. Walton, Kingston, will be re-elected secretary. The matter of compulsory auto- mobile insurance, an idea that has some powerful support as well as formidable opposition in this state, will be discussed in connection with consideration of the present financial responsibility law and provisions that might be adopted to strengthen it. A committee on automobile accident prevention is to report on a bill intended to put teeth in the financial responsibility law, based to some extent on the New Hampshire act. Among others expected to take part in the debate will be Arthur J. Rouillard, New Hampshire Commis- sioner of Insurance, Charles F. J. Harrington, Massachusetts Commis- sioner, and New York Superintendent of Insurance Louis H. Pink. Mr. Pink, in addressing the associ- ation at its summer meeting, came out in favor of compulsory liability insurance. The question whether administra- tive agencies have authority to sus- LOOK INSIDE FOR- FTC Notes Gain for Year in Leg Judge Defies Bar-Continues Radi Committee to Study Mortmain Ac Reasons Behind Ethics Opinion ar Says Recognition of Natural Law Automobile Group Guilty of Illeg Law Practice before Boards Subi Consider Admission to Practice b Hold Sheppard Bill Has Had Effec Lobbying Costs Not Allowable Tax Prevention of Strikes by Law Is REGULAR FEATURES- Ohio Law-in the Making ..._.--- What Readers Think Handy Index of Legislation To Brighter Worlds-.------- The Government at Work The National Defense - ----- ----- Open Way For Reconsideration Of Ambulance Chasing Problem Thought Provoking Letter of Successful 'Chaser' to Grievance Committee of Bar States Position of Man Who Contends Solicitation Is Real Service to Client LAW PROFESSORS REVIVE DISCUSSION OF SUBJECT Chicago. A thought provoking and trenchant statement designed to cut through the hypocrisy that has often obscured vital questions in discussions of ambulance chasing was laid before the Association of American Law Schools at its annual meeting here as a means of opening up the entire problem of solicitation for reconsideration. The statement, presented at the professors' roundtable on torts, was in the form of a letter from a successful chaser to the grievance com- mittee of a Bar association, in which is expressed with considerable force the contention that attorneys must solicit business, in one manner or another, and that an able trial lawyer who brings his qualifications to the attention of the person who needs them renders a real service. The letter is said to be genuine but all means of identifying the writer have, of course, been deleted. It follows: Text of Letter Dear Jim: I see by the papers that your committee is out to make a drive on what it calls ambulance chasing, and word has reached me via the grapevine that you have decided to make an example of somebody, and that I have been selected as Exhibit A. I pay you the compliment of believing that you didn't make the selection. You and I have been pretty good friends ever since law school, and I never did you any harm that I know of; and both of us know that there are some mutual debts and favors between us that would make either of us a plain heel if he went after the other. __________________________ I think I recognize the fine Italian hand of some other gentlemen on pend or disbar attorneys from your committee. Three of them are practice before them will be placed country lawyers who think that they before the association by Col. 0. R. were entitled to some personal in- McGuire, chairman of the American jury cases that came my way instead Bar Association's committee on ad- -one of them with a $27,500 verdict ministrative law. within the last three months. An- Col. McGuire is understood to be at other one represents a railroad, and work on legislation that would pre- the last time he tangled with me the vent the federal agencies from exer- Supreme Court affirmed a $35,000 cising such authority and would keep recovery in a clear liability broken all matters of lawyer discipline in hack case that he didn't have the the hands of the courts, common deoency to settle. Two others try some cases for the biggest liability insurance companies in the state, which speaks for itself; and one is a professor at the university law school who is full of eethicks al Business 2. because he never practiced a day in .o Acting -------wPage 2. his life. It is not hard to see where the shooting is coming from. Explained lPage t. Paying with Dynamite I am writing you this letter partly Necessary - --- -Page 3 to get it off my chest, and partly to al Practice -Page 3. let you know what your committee ect of Bill - h. is in for if it goes ahead with Ex- hibit A You can make any use of efor Agecie Pag 5. it you like, but it isn't going to do Desired oage 5. any of you any good if it gets into Deduction --lage 7. the newspapers-and that is where )isapproved - ..- --Page 8. a copy of it is going if you make it public. I have some friends there who have given me a little help now and then, and don't think they wouldn't love it. SPage4. The charge against me is that I efor e 4. solicit personal injury claims. - --- ------___ Page 6. Granted. I admit it. I'm proud of t Desired- .-Page 7. it. And what the bell is wrong with Page 7. it? ga8. We will, if you please, leave out a lot of pure baloney that I have no i (Continued on Page Six)

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