Overcrowded court calendars have long been a bane to an efficient jurisprudence system in the United States of America. Reports have reached here that trifling lawsuits in the American courts have often been delayed as much as three years because of heavy calendars. But the United States is not the only country confronted with such problems.
Conditions in this city’s courts have reached such a depressing stage that one of the local papers has carried a report to the effect that the lawyers intend to hold a strike in protest. Although legal circles repudiate the rumor, it is stated, nevertheless, that many lawyers have been compelled to take their cases to Jaffa or to the Jewish Arbitration Court, which is not a government body.
There is, however, no denying that the courts here are overcrowded with cases. Owing to the accumulation of suits pending trial by the Magistrate’s Court, most of the cases which have been submitted during the past few months have been adjourned for hearing during September and October. Crowds of litigants throng the courtyard of the court daily awaiting their turn, but they are getting the response that their plaints have been postponed. Observers, who should know, have expressed the opinion that most of the litigants will have to wait much later than October before their trials are held.
In view of this situation, a deputation of the Jewish Bar Association here has waited upon the president of the District Court at Jaffa, Judge Copland. Messrs. Herzl Ben-Ari, M. Gorodissky and F. Dickstein made up the group, which explained to the president that two magistrates in Tel Aviv were able to cope with legal matters only when the population numbered 40,000. With the doubling of that figure in the city and its environs, they said, the appointment of another two magistrates is imperative. They also stated that three members of the bench should sit regularly in Tel Aviv, and that it should not be possible to send them to Jaffa or Gaza, as has been the case hitherto. They pointed out that the fourth magistrate could be used as relief for other districts.
No immediate action was taken upon the deputation’s suggestions but Judge Copland promises to look into the matter.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
