ARBITRATION UNDER THE MODERN STATUTES

Authors

Abstract

Of late years the way of the "fair and free trial in open court," to which every man is deemed to have an inalienable right, has become so long, devious, intricate and costly, that the law faces the danger of falling into general disrepute. The calendars of courts in most jurisdictions ·are crowded and filled for months and years in advance. the situation being most acute in the larger cities and commercial centers. the very places where delays are most undesirable. New York City serves as a horrible example-here an ordinary case generally takes three years to come to trial. It has well and truly been said: "In these three years of 'laws' delays' rights suffer irreparable wrong; wrongs go unrighted; parties and witnesses die, scatter and disappear; evidence is lost or destroyed; memories fail and testimony loses its distinct value; frauds and prejudices evolve and are matured; insolvencies. and bankruptcies intervene, so that when the tardy day of judicial trial drags the often seriously weakened case to the bar of justice, justice ofttimes cannot be had or is very ineffective." Joseph Wheless, "Arbitration as a Judicial Process," 30 W. VA. L. Rew. 209. When, on top of all this preliminary delay, one considers the infinite delay that characterizes the trial itself, with its motions and counter-motions; the retrials and appeals; the highly technical and ancient rules of evidence and procedure, whereby the truth may be excluded as "incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial" and justice defeated; and finally, the heavy cost of all this, which must be borne by the litigant whether right or wrong, is it any wonder that people are seeking remedies and substitutes for such a system of dealing justice?

Recommended Citation

ARBITRATION UNDER THE MODERN STATUTES, 23 Mich. L. Rev. 882 (1925).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol23/iss8/5