EXPENSE OF APPEALS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 135, 10 June 1933, Page 14

EXPENSE OF APPEALS

GREATER COST ENTAILED

(Special to the "Evening Post") DUNEDIN, June 9. The fuller use of Justices of the Peace in-the administration of la,w, as suggested by the Minister of Justice, the Hon. J. G. Cobbe,_ is not. favoured by several leading solicitors who were asked today to express opinions on the proposal. The -^general opinion was that such a practice would result in greater expense to the country and to litigants owing to the increasing number of appeals that would be lodged through persons with limited or no legal knowledge trying cases. "Admittedly Justices of the Peace are usually men of eolid common sense," said one leading barrister and solicitor, "but common sense in itself is not enough for the administration of the intricate system of law in British countries. No person other than a man with extensive legal training is competent to undertake the administration of justice, excepting in the most trivial cases. This applies with greater force in modern times than it did in the past, owing to the much wider jurisdiction which, has been conferred on the inferior Courts. If Justices were engaged, in the Courts to any considerable de■gree the number of- appeals from inferior Courts to the Supreme Court— now comparatively small—must increase enormously, -with consequent cost to the country and to litigants."