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Show THE AMERICAN WAY Civil Courts: Making a Good System Better A child sues his parents for " m al parent ing. " Parents Par-ents file suits against children. chil-dren. Football fans sue game officials over a disputed dis-puted touchdown. "Americans," says the Defense Research Institute, "are turning to the courts for the redress of almost every ev-ery conceivable grievance." , Result: courts are overcrowded over-crowded and, it sometimes seems, almost everyone suffers. Despite this trend, says the Institute in a publication publica-tion called, "Administration of Civil Justice Position Paper," Pa-per," the civil court system in America is the fairest anywhere for the resolution of non-criminal cases. Why? Because it's rational, ration-al, reasonable and still flexible flex-ible enough to remedy its own shortcomings. The paper first of its kind ever to address the entire en-tire civil justice system and to promote needed improvementsurges improve-mentsurges greater support sup-port by legislative bodies and closer attention to operations oper-ations of the courts by educators edu-cators and the media. "Judges and lawyers can-not can-not create new courts, reorganize reor-ganize court systems or raise judicial salaries and jurors' fees," the Institute contends. The "legislative branch of government" can. Yet, it adds, "Legislators respond to judicial needs only when problems approach ap-proach a crisis stage." The Institute believes that, before enacting laws affecting the administration of justice, legislatures should consider the "probable judicial impact" of these measures, and should con- ( lB We must work together to bring about needed improvements improve-ments in our Civil Courts. sider augmenting judicial resources. There's no question that the civil court system is the best for resolving disputes, and no question that reforms re-forms are needed. To achieve necessary changes, however, in addition to legislative action, ac-tion, the Institute believes "public support is essential," and urges public restraint in resorting to the courts for relief. According to the publication, publica-tion, we cannot expect citizens citi-zens to become less inclined to file lawsuits. It may reasonably rea-sonably be expected, however, how-ever, that the number of lawsuits will decrease when' judges and other officials remove the incentives to litigiousness. Suggestions offered in the paper would, when implemented, im-plemented, operate directly to reduce cost and delay. An eight page summary of the report is available free through: Defense Research Re-search Institute, 1100 West Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI 53233. |