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Show PAGE Legal Service Lawyers Train Under Grant DRI Service Program Gains in Use 4-Pron- - InMILWAUKEE (ACCN) and usefulness creasing capacity have marked the six month period since the inception of the Defense - WASHINGTON (ACCN) The Columbus School of Law of The Research Institutes service program, according to a DRI report. The legal research organization of Catholic University of America has the personal injury defense and received a $772,252 contract award insurance law assumed last January from the Office of Economic Op- the operation of four major service portunity to conduct a national facilities formerly maintained under training and educational program the auspices of the Defense Infor legal services attorneys. formation Office. Statistics in the The contract, provides a fourteen DRI report indicate growth, both in month program which will involve size and resourcefulness, in all four more than 500 of the 2000 legal areas since that time. services attorneys in the country in DRI Research Director James D. specialized training programs Ghiardi attributes the success of the administered by Catholic Univerprogram to the demanding legal sity. atmosphere" of 1971 and the inProgram Director Professor creasing numbers of product and Richard E. Carter of the Columbus liability lawsuits, Law School explained that legal professional wrongful death and disability cases services attorneys encompassed by and assorted insurance and personal the program are those lawyers who actions. Through its four injury work in the various O.E.O. funded major service facilities DRI legal services projects throughout provides defense attorneys and their the country. Carter, former Deputy clients with valuable research Director of Law Reform of one such assistance. project, Neighborhood Legal SerDuring 1971, DRI Brief Bank vices Program of Washington, D.C., have grown to include over holdings is also Director of the Columbus 3,100 case files involving issues of Community Law Services clinic operated by the Catholic University Law School for inner city residents. The Catholic University proposal for the National Legal Services Attorneys stresses program curriculum planning with input from the program participants themselves. A core of six legal services lawyers from field offices around the country will be at Catholic University to offer their experienced views on what should go into their continuing education program. California May Merge Justice, City Courts SACRAMENTO (ACCN) The State Assembly has passed by a vote 7 of four bills calling for the merging of justice and municipal courts into a single trial court. The bills, authored by Assemblyman James A. Hayes Beach), call for state administration of the new court system under the direction of the Judicial Council. They must still be enacted by the State Senate. According to Hayes, These measures are a clear alternative to the cry for more and more judges to meet the growing burdens of our court system. At a cost of $350,000 for each new judgeship created, this astronomical cost simply should not be borne by the taxpayers when efficiencies and economies can be created by revising our present archaic system. Hayes said legislative analyst A. Alan Post has predicted the measures will save property taxpayers approximately $80 million a year. In addition, the Assemblyman declared, merging the two lower courts will bring about efficiencies which will include: l. The elimination of motions now being made in two courts; 2. The needless transfers back and forth between the municipal courts and superior courts of cases that can be tried either as a misdemeanor or as a felony; 3. The efficient use of judges who will become circuit-ridin- g judges in the less populated counties where they are needed; and 4. The specialization by the judges in specific fields of the law, such as probate, criminal, juvenile and family law. The Hayes legislation is contingent upon the passage of a State 56-1- (R-Lo- South Africa Girds for Cape Oil Pollution - In an age CAPE TOWN (ACCN) when the giant oil tankers must go round the Cape of Good Hope rather than through a blocked Suez Canal, South Africa fortunately has the engineers with the necessary initiative to cope with any problems of oil pollution from damaged tankers, according to C. R. Camp, operations chief engineer of Mobil Oil Southern Africa, Ltd. His address on oil pollution of the sea was one of three delivered by experts at a recent lecture session of the Congress of the South African of Federation Engineering Students held at the University of Town. University Cape Camp said that if there was no threat to a beach of economic importance or to the life of birds, the oil was best left alone to be dealt with by nature. There were more than 100 species of marine bacteria in the surface layers of the ocean that would digest and convert oil. These bacteria, given the right temporary environment, will, on learning of a food supply, double their numbers every two hours. Once the food supply has been consumed thy die off until their normal level is again reached." This knowledge was applied recently when the tanker Wafra was sunk off Cape Agulhas near Cape Town in such a position that the oil was released slowly from the hulk and drifted free of the land and in known currents southwards. It was often asked why the oil was not set alight, notes. This was because burning was usually impossible, and ia cases when it had been done, it u. ually aggravated the u heavier problem, ty he out. pointed sludge, Praised On LEAA Fund Probe Action LEAA Constitutional Amendment following Senate approval. Senator Urges Hague Tribunal Rule on Treaty Sen. (UPI) has Sdward W. Brooke, International the idvocaled that Court of Justice should decide whether chemical herbicides and riot control agents are prohibited by the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Brooke offered a resolution July 27 which would urge the President to seek an advisory opinion on the WASHINGTON dispute from the International - WASHINGTON ilTI) Florida Gov. Ucubin A'.ke .v has won praise from a House Subcommittee for steps his slate bus taken since the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration found "irregularities" e involving $505,000 in federal anti-crim- funds. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1971 THE DAILY RECORD EIGHT Court. The Massachusetts Republican noted that the disagreement over whether the Geneva Protocol Treaty to ban the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare includes herbicides and other substances has prevented ratification by the Senate. personal Injury, workmens compensation, product and professional liability, insurance law, procedure and evidence. Briefs are loaned to DRI members for use in trial preparation and strategy. According to Ghiardi, over 170 requests for resource materials from the Brief Bank were answered during the past six months. Briefs provided dealt with issues ranging from design negligence to uninsured motorist coverage. In DRIs Expert Witness Index, the report indicated, over 1,350 experts in a variety of fields in- cluding accident reconstruction, enaviation, engineering, vironmental pollution and highway safety are presently listed. Ghiardi notes that as the use of experts in :laims investigation and litigation jicreases, DRI builds its listing of qualified persons and acts as liaison in supplying the names of experts to its members. Statistics show that over 100 requests for the names of and experts accompanying biographical data have been handled since January 1. The plaintiff's use of the economic expert in wrongful death and disability cases is another developing trend which has been paralleled by the growth of the DRI Economists Testimony Transcripts Ghiardi continued. Transcripts of economic experts testimony and other materials related to the appraisal of damaee in facility," Networks Force FTC Backoff On CATV Rules WASHINGTON (UPI) - Under pressure from all sides, the Federal Communications Commissions dans to postpone for about six months implementation of its rules on community antenna television (CATV). Instead of the expected announcement of its cable policy, reliable sources said the FCC instead is sending a letter of intent to the chairmen of the House and long-await- communications Senate ed sub- committees. The letter outlines a package of cable television rules due for implementation next December or later. This will give the vocal Free broadcast interests another TV delay in their lobbying efforts against CATV. It is the diversity of programming for television audiences bored with network offerings that alarms Free half-ye- death and disability cases have been collected by DRI, indexed according to the characteristics of the case and published as part of a The Economic new monograph, Over 30 in Litigation. Expert requests for such materials have, been processed since January 1. Requesting members are usually supplied with supporting materials from a fact situation closely paralleling their own. Limited legal research on individual inquiries is also conducted the incorporating by DRI, the within knowledge contained various facilities. According to Ghiardi, over 140 inquiries were received during the first 6 months of 1971 and answered with citations to pertinent cases, articles and unpublished materials. wrongful Thurmond Finds Black-Whit- e Unity Elements - Sen. Strom Thurmond, says differences between blacks and whites in the South have been exaggerated and many qualities shared between the races have been ignored. In a statement published in the August issue of Ebony magazine a special issue on the South Thurmond said, In my judgment, the political differences between blacks and whites in the South has been exaggerated, and many qualities which blacks and southern whites share have been ignored. Thurmond said National Review Magazine recently published the results of a poll taken to determine the opinions of American college students at 12 campuses across the nation. He said the predominantly black Howard University in Washington, D.C., and the University of South Carolina were included in the poll. "A most interesting feature of this poll was that on numerous questions the students at Howard and at USC were more alike in their views than were students from other colleges, Thurmond said. Howard and USC students favored k laws by higher percentages, he said, and had much higher percentages of students opposed to legalization of marijuana than most schools polled. CHICAGO (UPI) R-S.- right-to-wor- ar The networks virtually will be captive audiences fragmented and their advertising impact diluted. In its simplest form, CATV is a system whereby an antenna is constructed to pick up television for retranssignals at a fee mission by means of coaxial cable to the homes of subscribers. Microwave radio also is used to import far distant signals. Instead of promulgating new rules at present, the FCC is expected to outline to the subcommittee chairmen four key parts of its proposed regulations that would limit CATVs use of distant signals; require CATV markets to reserve one channel for the publics free use ; require CATV stations to guarantee adequate quality; permit the federal government to set and control national policy with overall regulation, but permit local officials to keep control of CATV licenses TV." off-lhe-a- ir under federal guidelines. The broadcasting industry, which has many friends in .Congress, is strongly opposed to CATV operations, and the delay in implementation is seen as a courtesy to Congress and acknowledgement of growing White House interest in the multimillion dollar cable industry. Despite the FCC majority view that it must implement CATV rules, its members have been made acutely aware that Congress holds the FCC's pursestrings. FCC chairman Dean Burch, a Nixon appointee, also has been reportedly pressured by White House aide Peter Flanigan not to take any detrimental action toward "Free TV. U.S. Task Force Would Upgrade Youth Justice WASHINGTON (ACCN) - The Task Force on Legal Rights and Justice, one of the ten Task Forces of the 1971 White House Conference on Youth, has recommended that national standards for correctional institutions be established. Basically, the recommendations call for assurance that no juvenile, youthful offender or adult be detained in a correctional institution that is unable to provide educational and training programs as well as satisfactory facilities. More specifically they recommend that: Emphasis be placed on the development community-base- d and operation of correctional facilities and programs, including diagnostic services, halfway houses and other supervisory release programs. Minimum physical standards be established and if an institution does not comply with these standards after a reasonable length of time when deficiencies are noted, no offender may be detained there and Federal funds shall be withheld. Community legal services, defenders and the legal profession at large are urged to bring suit against prisons and prison officials on the grounds that serving sentences in many correctional institutions not only constitutes cruel and unusual punishment proscribed by the Eighth Amendment, but also violates the positive to statutory duty provide public rehabilitation. Whites Flight Doomed Chicago School Mixing CALIF. (UPI) STANFORD, Racial integration in -- Chicago schools is almost nonexistent and efforts to improve existing facilities are plagued by acts of vandalism, according to Joseph Hannon, Chicagos assistant superintendent for facilities planning. Hannon told a conference called by the school planning laboratory of Stanford Universitys School of Education that white middle class citizens have fled the city on a block by block basis for the suburbs. Now there is not even salt and pepper integration, he said. Weve lost the integration battle in Chicago, Hannon said. Now were concentrating on education. quality However, he said vandalism hampers attempts to provide enough classrooms and keep class sizes down. Mobile classroom units are burned and vandalized almost the day after they are installed by persons who dont want change, he said. Hannon said the city has provided 1,500 mobile units costing $4,500 each for ghetto and suburban schools. He said window breakage alone cost the school district $2.8 million last year. A type of plastic glass has been tried but it scratches and marks up. Hannon told the conference environmental planning for schools is useless in big cities unless it includes everything right down to the whether it ansingle individual swers the question: What does it do for me? Coast County Tries P.l. Juries 8-M- an SAN JOSE, CALIF. (ACCN) -- Making legal history here, Santa Clara Countys first eight-ma- n jury has rendered a personal injury case verdict after less than two days rather than the usual three to four jury takes. days a For Superior Court Judge O. Vincent Bruno this was a second attempt after a first had a happy but unexpected ending. Earlier, he swore in an eight-ma- n jury but the case was settled out of court. Both San Jose attorney Sam OBrien for the plaintiff suffering a neck injury from an auto accident and San Francisco counsel Bernard Maryanski for the defendant stipulated to the jury at Judge Brunos request. eight-memb- er Using the federal system of voir dire, the judge questioned the prospective jurors rather than following usual procedure of the lawyers questioning them. Jury selection took 35 minutes instead of . the usual half-da- y After Judge Bruno finished questioning the prospective jurors, he offered the attorneys the chance of submitting additional questions to him. There were none. He also gave the lawyers six challenges, the same as in a jury. They exercised 12-m- an two challenges. The case started at 11 a.m. By had been selected and the lawyers started their opening statements before lunch. 11:35 the jury That afternoon and the following morning four witnesses were heard. Lawyers finished their closing statements by noon the next day. Following lunch Judge Bruno instructed the jury on the law. The eight began deliberations by 2:20 p.m. and gave the verdict bv 5:15 o.m. eight-memb- er Judge Bruno said he would try to convince every lawyer coming before his court to stipulate to the eight-ma- n jury to speed up the trial calendar. |