Cupler, A W

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North Dakota Law Review Volume 1 Number 8 Article 1 1924 A Challenge to the Legal Profession A W. Cupler Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr Recommended Citation Cupler, A W. (1924) "A Challenge to the Legal Profession," North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 1 : No. 8 , Article 1. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol1/iss8/1 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Dakota Law Review by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact und.commons@library.und.edu. BAR BRIEFSPUBLISHED MONTHLY AT BISMARCK-By-STATE BAR ASSOCIATIONOF NORTH DAKOTAEntered as Second Class Matter Jan. 15, 1925, at the Postofflce atBlsmarck, North Dakota, Under the Act of August 24, 1912Vol. 1 JULY 1925 No. 8A CHALLENGE TO THE LEGAL PROFESSIONMuch has been said of recent years about "the technicali-ties of the law" and "the law's delays." The phrases havebeen repeated so often that it has been taken for granted thatlaw, as a science, is retrogressing rather than progressing.Along with this criticism necessarily goes a veiled but nonethe less positive condemnation of the legal prrofession. Inthe June issue of that dignified periodical, The World's Work,we find an editorial indicting the legal profession and hold-ing it responsible for what the Editor terms an intolerablecondition in the administration of the law. He predicts thatunless the lawyers through their Bar Associations reformthe procedural rules of law, the public will take the matterin hand and do the reforming itself and though such reformwill be rough and uncouth, it will be better than no reform.This editorial, which no doubt reflects the attitude of a largenumber of people toward our profession, is a severe criticismof the lawyer as a class. The public are looking, and havefor years looked, to the lawyer to keep the administration ofjustice abreast of the times to meet the great changes thathave occurred in all classes of society. It is said that the legalprofession has not kept faith with the public and met thisresponsibility with which it'has been entrusted.In a measure, this is true, but to say that there has beenno progress in the administration of justice is to close one'seyes to the fact that in recent years the percentage of casesdecided on question of practice and procedure, which are thecause of "technicalities" and "delays," has become relativelysmall. Both the lawyer and the judge now direct theirthought to the merits of the controversy and endeavor to decide the suiton "the equities 'of the case," and I venture to say that on the wholethere has been a marked advance in the administration of justice in re-cent years.But law, like all sciences, is not static. There is, and always willbe, occasion for criticism and need of constructive reform. It is andshould be the function of the Bar Association to propose and enforcesuch refoTms as are needed from time to time to keep the administra-tion of justice up with the advance that is made in other fields of humanendeavor. The public looks to the lawyer and his organization, the BarAssociation, for such results. It is only by cooperative effort throughthe Bar Association that the lawyer can discharge this duty to the pub-lic. The necessity of having a well organized and efficient Bar Associa-tion, functioning as a part of the Judicial Branch of the Government, isrecognized by all. The public should be made to realize that the idealsand motives of our profession are honorable, that we are striving ef-fectively to attain better and mare speedy administration of justice.With this thought impressed on the public mind by word and act of ours,we may be sure that our profession will be looked to, as it has been inthe past, for guidance in the solution of the many public questions con-tinually pressing for decision as well as those relating directly to theadministration of justice.Let every lawyer and every judge give serious thought to thiscriticism and contribute his share to the united effort of our State BarAssociation to bring about needed reforms in the administration ofjustice.A. W. CUPLER, President.LAWYERS AND LEGAL PROCEDUREFoT nine years in succession the American Bar Association has en-deavored to procure the enactment of a law- to authorize the Supremecourt of the U. S., in cooperation with the best added legal counselavailable, to formulate an entirely new system of federal procedure forcases at law. Court procedure has become so cumbersome in the Fed-eral courts and in many -states as to increase the cost of litigation, im-pair the operation of the law, and delay, and often defeat the ends ofjustice.Yet almost no progress has been made. Perhaps the reason maybe summed up in the passing remark of a Senator, that the change mightinconvenience somebody. Meaning the lawyers, of course. Rules ofprocedure in the Federal courts have grown out of the earlier endeavorto conform to the practices of each state. But there grew up such amass of unscientific practices that the Supreme court finally declaredthat to conform to these state procedures would be to defeat the ends ofjustice in Federal tribunals. Then came amendatory Federal legislation,and more or less haphazard rules of procedure until we have a pro-cedure, now called Federal Practices, an abnormal growth, through tor-tuous processes, a system described as "Sanskrit to the average lawyerand a monopoly to the experienced Federal practitioner."Yet the lawyers, on the Bench and as counsel, are sworn to followboth the law and established procedure. True, as the dominant factor

A Challenge to the Legal Profession

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A Challenge to the Legal Profession

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