WORK OF THE COURTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21976, 10 June 1933, Page 12

WORK OF THE COURTS

REORGANISATION SCHEME MINISTER’S PROPOSAL CRITICISED (Per UiaTEn Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 9. The proposal by the Minister of Justice (Mr J. G. Cobbe) to reorganise the Magistrate’s Courts is viewed with considerable apprehension and freely criticised in Auckland; A former magistrate said that if ihe scope of the work of the justices of peace were widened there would undoubtedly be a stream of appeals against their decisions, and thus the work of the courts would be complicated instead of assisted. A prominent lawyer described the Minister’s scheme as a foolish proposition. “It shows the danger,” he said, “of allowing the administration of the Justice Department to pass from the hands of experienced legal practitioners to inexperienced laymen as the present Minister is.” He added that justices of the peace appointments were usually in the nature of a political reward without regard for aptitude. There had been some good justices in the courts, but they were the exception rather than the rule.

VIEWS OF LAWYERS “REAL DANGER IN’ ADMINISTRATION.” (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 9. Legal circles in Wellington do not view with favour the proposal to make more use of of the peace in the magistrate’s courts. A leading barrister said he thought that justices of the peace were generally incompetent to dispense justice. “ Amateur judges, I think,” he said, “ form a real danger in the administration of the law. It is impossible for anyone without training to perform Judicial duties. In my own experience I have seen many cases, particularly by-law criminal cases, where justices were unable to accept any proposition submitted by a defendant, but implicitly accept everything the police or their witnesses say. So far as penalties are concerned there is no unanimity through latk of sufficient experience, the result being that the penalties in many cases are greatly in excess of what they should be.” A well-known solicitor considers that further use of justices would detract from the dignity of the bench. He was opposed to the proposal because only a man properly trained in law was able to arrive at a correct decision. It was manifestly impossible for anyone not cognisant with the canons of law to attempt to dispense justice comparable with the manner of trained magistrates.

LOCAL SOLICITORS’ VIEWS THE, PROPOSAL IMPRACTICABLE. Among several of Dunedin’s leading solicitors, who were asked yesterday to comment on Mr Cobbe’s suggestion that fuller use might be made of justices of the peace in administering the law, the consensus of opinion was that the idea would not be at all practicable, so far, at least, as New Zealand was concerned. It was pointed out that whilst justices of the peace were usually men of sound common sense, this quality alone did not qualify a man to administer the intricate system of law in the British Empire. The administration of justice, excepting in trivial cases, was solely a matter for men with thorough legal training, and this applied more forcibly* in the present day than it did in the past, on account of the wider jurisdiction that had been allowed the inferior courts. It was more than probable, one prominent barrister and solicitor said, that if justices were engaged to the extent suggested by the Minister, the number of appeals from the lower courts to the. Suprepie Court, now comparatively small, would increase enormously, with a corresponding increase in cost to the country and to litigants.