Order in the Court

Amid recent White House conferences on education, highways, and civil defense, little public concern has focussed on the jungle-jim structure of the nation's courts. While uniform codes have made the federal system a relatively efficient procedure, many state and county courtrooms are regularly the scenes of judicial carnage. With crowded calendars and an inadequate bench, civil courts have too often had to rule in favor of insurance gouging and the slick argument.

Many solutions to the dangers inherent in the "law's delay" have been suggested, ranging from abolition of the jury trial for civil cases to setting up non-judicial procedures for automobile litigation, which composes up to 90 percent of the calendar backlog. One of the most successful of these methods is the pre-trial conference between judge and lawyers. Here the issues are informally exposed, and the judge can familiarize himself with the case. If the conflict cannot be settled out of court, the trial, at least, can then proceed without routine delays.

In New York state alone, where the pre-trial conference has been combined with similar moderate reform methods, the backlog has been reduced by one-third in a single year. Equity has come that much closer to the citizen-statistic.