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Show Trial by Lawyer Plan Reduces Delays of Law A unique "trial by lawyer" arbitration plan has brought quick justice to more than 14,000 Philadelphians who once had to wait up to nine years for their day in court. The idea is spreading spread-ing elsewhere, and has received favorable notice from a committee com-mittee of the American Bar Association. So reports the April Reader's Digest, in an article on the log jam of small damage suits in American courts, and how the jam may be broken. Anyone bringing a damage or injury suit in most areas, the article notes, now has to wait from one to five years before his case reaches a jury; about 50 months in Chicago, 44 months in New York City; 21 months in Kansas City, 20 in Cleveland, 15 in Los Angeles. The result is often justice, thwarted; memories fade, witnesses die or move away, "combat fatigue" undermines under-mines the plaintiff's determination and case. A way to break the jam was first tried in rural Butler County in western Pennsylvania, and quickly spread through 50 counties plus Philadelphia. Under this scheme all civil cases involving $200 or less are tried by a three man panel of volunteer lawyer-arbitrators. lawyer-arbitrators. While one over-burdened judge and 'a jury may handle at most 150 cases a year, the panels in Philadelphia are clearing up as many as 1000 civil cases a month. Proceedings are faster and less formal. A case which might have taken two days was settled in two hours. But the verdicts are just as fair; a meager 2 per cent of the decisions have been appealed, and 80 per cent of those were upheld. The Special Commitete on Court Congestion of the Bar Association recetnly reported: "The compulsory arbitration plan has now successfully run the gamut from the small rural counties of Pennsylvania to the state's largest metropolitan center. There is reason to believe it can be made to work with the same effectiveness effective-ness in most sections of the country where the courts cannot meet the burdens of cases filed." |