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4 Law Notes Gen. Prac. [i] (1967-1968)

handle is hein.journals/lwntgen4 and id is 1 raw text is: (il Published by the American Bar Association's Section of General Practice and Young Lawyers Section OCTOBER 1967 THE CHAIRMAN'S CORNER One of the objectives of the Section of General Prac- tice is to undertake projects and present programs which will directly assist our members in their daily practice of the law. As a conse- quence, a number of our members have requested that our Section render assistance in helping the general practitioner to meet his obligation in representing indigent defendants in criminal proceedings. The great majority of our communi- Robert W. Merrill ties do not have a public defender, San Franciscb, Calif. and as a result of the Supreme Court decisions there is an ever increasing burden on lawyers to meet the need for court appointed counsel. I might add that the members who communicated with us were not objecting to this traditional obligation borne by lawyers. Their concern is that as general prac- titioners they may not have the knowledge and experi- ence in the field of criminal law to provide a defendant with the most skillful defense possible. To meet this need, our Section has undertaken a long range two part program. First, in order to provide direct training in the field of criminal law we presented criminal trial demonstrations at both the regional meet- ing of the ABA at Oklahoma City and at our National Institute at Dallas. We are planning to present similar programs in other parts of the country in the future. In addition, we plan to develop the material and format for 1 program which can be sent to bar associations and which can then be presented by the local group to its own members. As a second part of the program, we are gathering information and developing recommendations which will aid our members in improving the systems used for the defense of indigents in their respective communities. For example, one community may not have a public Section membership as of December 31, 1965 3,611 Section membership as of December 31, 1966 6,573 Section membership as of this issue 7,139 34 PAGES defender system, whereas a community of a similar size and type in a sister state may have. Or the board of supervisors or commissioners in one county may pro- vide adequate funds for the payment of attorneys repre- senting indigent defendants, while a like county in a sister state does not do so. Or a particular community may find that there are enough attorneys knowledgeable in criminal law who are willing to serve on a panel for the representation of indigent defendants without call- ing upon the other members of the Bar. Our members have indicated that this type of information will be very helpful to them in bringing about an improved system in their communities. To carry out this work, the Council of our Section authorized the appointment of a Committee on Repre- sentation of Indigent Defendants, and I have asked Bill Cornelius of Jefferson, Texas, to serve as chair- man of the committee. The recent decision of the Supreme Court in the Gault case concerning the representation by counsel of juveniles, will also greatly increase the need for court appointed counsel. This will even affect lawyers in communities which have a public defender system, as these are usually matters which are not being handled by a public defender. Accordingly, consideration will also be given to steps that might be taken to assist those of our members who may be called upon to repre- sent juveniles in these proceedings. THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT Since 1962, the year in which the Section of General Practice was created, our Section has passed several milestones. On July 1, 1964, our Section joined forces with the Young Law- yers Section to publish, on a quar- terly basis, a new publication-Law Notes. October 1964 saw the dis- tribution of our first issue. That issue, and the subsequent issues, have attempted to print articles of Bruce E. Davis practical and immediate assistance Bethlehem, Pa. to our readers. Since the first issue of Law Notes was distributed 3 years ago this month, we have published 112 articles. We have covered some 16 general areas of the law, with each area of law covered by at least 3 articles. (Continued on page 2) VOL. 3, NO. 5 LAW NOTES for the General Practitioner

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