Law -- England; Poor -- England; Poor laws -- England; Working class -- England
The daily work of a County Court judge is not less difficult than that of
his High Court brother. The complication of a case does not depend upon
the amount at stake, and the County Court judge has, if anything, to have
a somewhat wider knowledge of law and a far greater knowledge of the lives
of the poor than any other judicial person, since the legal subjects he
deals in are more varied in character than those met with in other Courts,
and he naturally sees more of the daily life of the people. Certainly the
High Court judges get better assistance from the Bar, or rather, I should
say, more assistance--or should it be assistance of greater length?--but
the County Court Bar of to-day contains the pick of the younger men, and
is really the nursery of the common law Bar since it is only in the County
Courts that a catholic experience in civil advocacy can be obtained. I
noted with some interest that in a recent batch of silks seven or eight
had been before me, some of them several times within a few months of
their taking silk.
When there is a divorce case of any importance--in the same way as if it
were a libel case of importance--great advocates with no special knowledge
of the mysteries of divorce law are called in to lead the specialists.
What is wanted is advocacy, not knowledge of divorce procedure, and the
County Courts have excellent advocates to-day. If there is one special
branch of law where one would think expert knowledge is essential it is
Admiralty, yet important Admiralty cases belong to County Court districts
where for aught anybody knows or cares the learned judge and the advocates
may not know the difference between a bowsprit and a rudder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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