Chief justice Berger is going to give the keynote address to this conference, which has the rather ungainly title of the National Conference on the consensus on the causes of popular dissatisfaction with the administration of justice. Now that title is the same as the name of the major Address given in 1906 Billy Roscoe pound. In fact, this conference is being held in St. Paul in commemoration of that event 70 years ago conference is sponsored by the judicial Conference of the United States Conference of Chief justices and the American Bar Association. The purpose of this conference is to draw together some of the top legal and judicial leaders in the country discussing possible solutions to the problems of overcrowded courts High Cost of litigation and a general the frustration. Lots of people feel with the criminal justice and civil law system to stay in this country. The chief justices of the 50 States Supreme Court's have been invited to this event as have members of the US Supreme Court two days of discussion sessions and speeches have been scheduled for the conference participants after the chief justice is keynote address this evening Herman Kahn director of the Hudson institution will outline prospects for society in the next half-century speculating as well on the possible consequences of some of those developments for the courts. Tomorrow and distinguish group of panelists will talk about the business of the courts what kinds of disputes are best to solve a Judicial action and which are better assigned to other forms the US solicitor general Robert Bork will address of punch and gathering tomorrow. Then on Friday at the major topic will be can the interest of Justice be better served with process is less time-consuming and less expensive and the current system is a litigation attorney general Edward Levy Northwest conference on Friday night. Right. Now we are hearing a welcoming remarks by Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson, and he will be introducing Robert Sharon. The Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court will introduce the Chief Justice of the United States presiding at the session. Today is Charles house chairman of the conference of Chief justices. Lycra fortunate to be presenting the session live as we understand the chief justice is normally reticent to permit the electronic media to cover his appearances. Topic of Chief Justice Warren dress today is agenda for the year 2000 and now let's join Governor Anderson's welcoming remarks. With your clients. I was lucky enough to be associated with a great firm that hat is one of its Founders a member of the United States Supreme Court and I could no longer stay with that firm because it caused problems for them letting young manservant legislature the controversy being away the rest of it with the Chief Justice. Firms that can really if they have a social conscience that are in a position to allow someone to run for public office are the big Prestige prestigious firms. Your old friend would never allow somebody to run for the State Legislature. It's even gotten to the point. I try to appoint a bright young man as a judge and he is from one of the biggest firms in the state. And what do you think the reaction was at the senior Partners encouragement? No, they went to this man and said the tragic mistake for you to serve as a judge more money if you stay with our firm. I think that my 10 year as Governor will be judged. Enlarged measured by the men and women as I appoint as judge because they will be there long after I leave. But it will be impossible for me to make the kind of judicial appointments that I would like to make unless the United States Supreme Court. And the Minnesota state supreme court and the federal bench in the state branch makes it very clear to those prestigious law firms. But unless they demonstrate in a concrete specific way that they have a social conscience and are willing to do a few things where there's no money involved. Then I'll never be able to agree with mr. Pound nor will any of you when he concluded his 1906 address with these words. We may look forward to a future when our courts will be Swift and certain agents of Justice decisions will be a Christian and respected by all. That's my goal. I hope it's yours. Governor Anderson speaking to the guests at this Gathering. Now here is again the Charmin Charles house. We are here in the House of Representatives. it's appropriate and we also recognize and accept your welcome. Did you listen Department of the state of Minnesota? My pleasure to introduce our friend of the Chief Justice. I'll be Minnesota Supreme Court. Say a few words and will not come home eight eight eight volume eight good I give you a chief. Justice Roberts, Minnesota Supreme Court. Mister chairman Governor Anderson fellow con freeze 70 years ago Wendy in Roscoe pound in this forum Gave his famous address. He proceeded on two significant assumptions. the first of these assumptions was that the test of the soundness of a Judicial System Is the service that it affords to the public generally? He was concerned about popular disaffection with the administration of justice. the second assumption which underlies his speech is But our profession considered in the broad sense. the law schools the practicing lawyers the Juris have by reason of our training and opportunity. A special obligation to analyze the operation of our judicial system. And criticize those features of it. Which call for improvement? Give strength and support to those that are working well. In the 70 years that have elapsed since that address was given. Judicial Administration has not been made perfect, but this has occurred. The two basic assumptions which were then contested? Are now a generally agreed-upon amongst us. The very fact that the judicial Conference of the United States the conference of Chief justices and the American Bar Association should join together. in sponsoring this conference demonstrates that the circumstance that there should be assembled here as there is the leading and most effective voices from every segment of our profession. is the strongest possible evidence of our Commitment to the principle that the judicial system must serve the people. And it is an imperative for us to move it in this direction. on such a time and with such an occasion it is of course fitting that. The keynote address should be given. Buy one who's office? serves as a symbol of Justice in the United States the office of the Chief Justice of the United States it is doubly significant. At that office is now and for these seven last years has been. Filled by a man dedicated to the performance of those facets of the office. Which involve? acceptable Renditions of Judicial Service it is an extraordinary privilege to welcome you and to present to you the Chief Justice of the United States list of Warren Burger chief justice Sharon, Governor Anderson John Walsh my colleagues of the bench and bar and distinguished guests. We open this meeting of Judges lawyers and Scholars here at the scene of Roscoe pounds 1960s Beach 1960s in order to remind ourselves of what do you say? Andrew underscore the sobering realities that progress is slow and that much remains to be done. On that occasion pound gave to our profession under the country the first truly comprehensive critical analysis of American Justice and the problems that had accumulated in the first hundred and thirty years of our independence. In that span of time our country has grown from three million people in a largely rural Society on the Eastern Seaboard 285 million people spread over a continent. Not only spread over the continent, but with a rapidly expanding. population on cities built around a dynamic industrial economy The conference we open tonight is significant because for one reason it is the first time that the chief justices of the highest courts of the states, the leaders of the federal courts, the leaders of the organized bar legal Scholars and thoughtful members of other disciplines have joined forces to take a hard look at how our system of justice is working. We will ask in this conference whether it can cope with the demands of the future. And we will begin the process of inquiry into needed change. But we should remember that this meeting will be judged not on its unique composition but on what it stimulates in the years ahead. If we are to justify taking two days time of more than 200 of the law and others it will be useful to make clear what we are not here to do. That is easier perhaps than to say with Precision. What we hope to accomplish. We are not here to deal primarily with specifics and details but with fundamental Sunspel bespoke at this very Podium 70 years ago. There have been countless conferences seminars and studies on every aspect of the administration of justice a review of those Gatherings demonstrates. However, that is pound said we have been tinkering and where comprehensive reform is needed. But any suggestion that nothing has been done in these 70 years would be very wrong a great deal was done and much of it was due to what he set in motion right here. But we have not really faced. Whether there are other mechanism. And procedures to meet the needs of society and individuals. and even if we I have something that is now terrible. We must see now whether it will be adequate to cope with what is to come in the next 25 or 30 years. Given the dynamic expansion of litigation that we've seen in the past 10 years the ghost of the country on the increasing complexity of both. when a city or a state grows from three to four million people that increase brings tensions in labor-management relations in schools in zoning and housing problems in civil rights claims and in a host of other things, In this final quarter of the 20th century, we will see changes in our society that will generate even greater demands on the judicial system than anything we have seen before. Because the world has experienced more changes in these 70 years since pound was here than in the preceding 700 probably. We must be prepared to lift our sites even higher than pound had in mind for the year of 2000 will be on us very swiftly. today many nations most agencies of government Private Industry have long had studies underway to prepare them to cope with the future. One Rider calls this systematic and sister anticipation systemic anticipation and he came in this process and needs the help of other disciplines. So I submit But as long as we are here to inquire and probe rather than to propose and decide that we do it boldly not timidly candidly and not apologetically. As we begin it may be beneficial to consider the conditions that pound and his generation confronted in 19 6 to see how they and later generations responded. At the turn of the century pound and the others he worked with were attempting to bring rationality and order to the judicial system. gametes problems arising out of the economic and social chaos caused by the Industrial Revolution the girls of our cities the waves of immigration transform this country in the second half of the 19th century. The major concern of pound and the coop he worked with was the fashion better means by which people could have their disputes resolved because it was apparent to them as they entered the 20th century that the institutions of the 19th century. We're simply not adequate. Many years after the Saint Paul meeting Herbert Harley characterize poem speech as a map of the territory with the roads plainly shown but no Transportation provided. Pound new as we know but no one's speech. No one conference can solve the problems. And after 1960 on a few other set out to create the vehicles necessary to get from where they were to where they wanted to go. Pound was not satisfied with anything less than comprehensive change. our task then once we review what has gone before history examine the map that pound to to assess the direction of the roads that he laid out and to consider whether we need not just to tighten the nuts and bolts, but the Begin work on the design of some new even radically new vehicles. To take us where we want to go in the years ahead. It might be worth more than a footnote to help us gain perspective to remember the twins pounds folk here in this chamber. Many of the audience came from the downtown hotels by the trolley cars that had only recently replaced the horse cars and some of the people came up here by horse and buggy. Where are the parking meters now stand downtown? We're hitching posts for the horses. Horses and Buggies are gone, even the trolley cars he's gone. And men like Henry Ford Louis Chevrolet and the Wright brothers have drastically altered Our Lives. leprosy the fundamentally the message for settling disputes remain essentially what they were in that day, perhaps what we need now. Are some imaginative Wright brothers of the law to invent and Henry Ford's of the Batu. Perfect. new Machinery new vehicles for resolving disputes in considering new approaches. We must not be diluted by the kind of present but erroneous assumptions held by pound that America as he assumed then was entering a. Of relative Tranquility in which it could concentrate on providing efficient means to remedy old wrongs and create a better Fair Society. Of course, she did not foresee the terrible destruction of World War 1 or the upheavals that would follow it spawning more Wars and disorders down to this very day. And although pounds was sensitive to the legitimate complaints of the great mass of working people. He had not yet to fully the needs of racial minorities nor the changes that would be stimulated. by the recognition of those rights But pound clearly saw the need to Fashion systems of dispute settlement to meet the conditions of 1960s. At that time working and middle-income citizens were more and more crowded into large cities. They were increasingly frustrated by the tensions the demands the physical and emotional abrasiveness of a new way of life far removed from Life in a small town or on a farm. Pound was concerned about the claims for on-the-job injuries for a protection against such things as tainted food and against the exploitation of child labor and added to all this was the growing crime rate. And then the Advent of the automobile bringing with it a whole new set of Social and economic consequences all of them having an impact on the courts. He recognized that no one would ever be fully satisfied with the law or with any system of justice that dissatisfaction. He said was as old as the law itself, but he sounds as much of that dissatisfaction was justified for the courts at that time seemed powerless to give relief to the victims of the harsh new conditions of industrial and city life that I have just mentioned. Turn on focused on the court system, which he called archaic and on Park procedures, which he said we're behind the times. and wasteful of judicial time he condemned and these are his words the sporting theory of justice so rooted he said in the profession in America that most of us take it for a fundamental legal tenant. What do you meant by the sporting theory was that lawyers instead of searching for truth and justice? Off intended to seek private Advantage for getting that they were officers of the courts with a monopoly on legal services that mandated for them. Duties to the public as well as duties for their clients. Pounding called on a profession that leaders of the profession to act. Remember that in 1960 there? The American Bar Association was a small conservative organization. There was no American judicature society. There was no American law Institute. No Institute of judicial Administration. Only a few lawyers and judges and a handful of legal Scholars were willing to examine the deficiencies of our court system in relation to people's needs. Since 1960 and a ray of dynamic organizations devoted to the administration of justice has come into beating. We realize of course that no one's speech. No one conference can change things overnight. But the long-range reaction of the legal Community to pound speech them suggests that speeches and conferences can indeed lead to action in a free Society. When he spoke your of the abl gets greeted his address without enthusiasm. And although the next year the association created a special committee to investigate the complaints that he talked about that report of the committee was never adopted. Yep, the influence of what he said is Illustrated in our using the title of his speech to describe this conference. American judicature society was organized in 1913 largely due to pounds influence in his speech here. And it is perhaps the classic example of the value of enlisting non-lawyers in the search for better Justice. Experience has shown however that it is not easy to make use of other disciplines except by constantly emphasizing that specialists in public administration and business administration. And those in the social sciences can help the carts. In the ultimate sense pound considered the function of the carts. To be that they should deliver social and economic Justice according to standards established by law. Now that is very different from social and economic Justice according to the philosophy of judges. In this limited sense, however, those adjectives are clearly implied in the words equal justice. That of course was the objective of the Declaration of Independence of the Constitution and of the Bill of Rights. Another mother measure of the change in attitudes of our profession is shown in the American Bar association's transition from the elite group that reacted with hostility to pound in 19 6 into a progressive body composed of 210,000 representative lawyers. The association was one of the moving forces in the 1971 National Conference of the Judiciary at Williamsburg, Virginia where the national Center for state courts was conceived and soon after brought into operation. The association was the chief instrument in 1969 and developing The Institute for cart management, which has stimulated a great expansion in the use of Court administrator's in both state and federal courts. In 1960. There was a profound concern over the processes of judicial selection and what we now call the Merit selection system emerged. Later this week Justice finish of the Missouri Supreme Court who is president of the national Center for state courts will discuss that subject. If there has been a disappointment with some of the new developments that occurred since 1960 and major one was the failure of the small claims courts to fulfil their early promise. Those carts appeared in some Midwestern states soon after pound spoke and by the 1920s they were used in many large cities. In many places they have gradually drifted away from the simplified processes that are essential for Speedy and inexpensive disposition of cases and the whole subject needs a fresh look. Many valuable Studies have been made of the work of the trial courts in and of the appellate courts and putting the Supreme Court of the United States, but those studies will have value only if they persuade legislators to act and then rely on those studies at least for some guidance. Now pending in Congress is a four-year-old request for 65 desperately needed district and circuit judges in the federal system that request is based on studies of the administrative office of the United States courts made at the request of the Congress. the Senators now Food52 new judgeships only last week But we will have no additional judges until the house acts while we wait on your crisis situation particularly in the courts of appeals is moving in on us. This leads me to suggest that it may be the time to consider whether providing an adequate number of Judges can be dealt with better in some other way than the present system of selection an appointment in Florida. For example, the governor of the state is authorized by the legislature to create a new judgeship or judged by executive order based on precise criteria of population caseload and other relevant factors. prescribed in a statutory formula Where is similar to measure adopted on the federal level the need for judge ships would not be caught up in the complexities of politics and elections and other relevant factors. At the time of Elections both the executive and legislative branches are preoccupied with matters. Totally foreign to the needs of the carts. This is kind of procedure should be studied to see if it would fit the federal system. sunspel, bespoke other improvements that can fairly be called tinkering where develop the merger of Law and Equity the requirements of federal courts, apply state law and diversity cases and the administrative procedures act and there are others of course diversity jurisdiction, which pound characterized in 1914 As the cause of delay and expense and uncertainty still plagues us despite numerous studies which Advocate Advocate that such jurisdiction in the federal courts be either curtailed or abolished entirely. Also worth noting as one of the improvements is the use of the six-member juries in civil cases are practice first introduced by Chief Judge David and his colleagues here in Minnesota by rule and subsequently adopted almost universally by the federal courts all over the country to save time and expense with no adverse effect on the litigants. After the event it is easy enough to regard some of these processes as Petty tinkering or tinkering but without these developments the administrative Collapse by now. It is far easier to do what we lawyers often do praise. Our system has the best ever created by man and denounce anyone who dares to suggest that we consider not only periodic adjustments but major and systemic changes the inertia of some lawyers and legislators is such that nothing less than the collapse of the system. Will bring some of them to consider change their others however with a passion for reform, which is we know can be a valuable asset but like all passions that needs to be regulated and channel. We sometimes develop an alleged reform and then turned a new fields and assume that the first effort has no flaws. It might be helpful. When we enact some of these changes and reforms to give them a short-term five or ten years and then subject them to audit than critical re-examination. My colleagues just black and Douglas not in jest but seriously said years ago that when new agencies. Are created they should be dismantled after a fix. 10 years or so and not reinstated unless someone could show that there was an absolute need coming from two architects of the massive changes of the 1930s. The black Douglas admonition should carry a great deal of weight. Whatever risk may be involved in our probing on talking as we hope to do in the next two days. We must be prepared to take those risks. There is nothing dangerous about studying and considering basic change. I want to be sure that the alterations will prefer preserve old values, but the most important thing is that they delivered Justice at the lowest possible cost in the shortest possible time. For example think it is. So first of to ask why England the source of all our legal institutions found it prudent and helpful 40 years ago to abandon jury trials for virtually all of their civil cases. A whole range of important times or civil cases have been tried in this country since the beginning of the Republic without Cheerios. And if it is sound to consider adopting British concepts of pretrial disclosure of all prosecution evidence in criminal cases, as some lawyers ardently propose. I hardly think we endanger the Republic if we also make some thoughtful in prairies and England's civil procedures and their ideas of finality of judgments charge of three or four trials and appeals. So when we make changes their operation must be monitored to be sure they're working as we intended. One example will make this point the 1964 criminal justice act in the 1966 bail Reform Act were major developments responding to need in the federal system. Need actions which were regarded as good by all Enlighten people. But we cannot assume that the first try is perfect. Now a decade after we have had them and more. The actual experience shows that the interaction between these two improvements created vexing problems that no one anticipated lawyers who are supplied to Indigent defendants at public expense do as they should exactly what privately paid lawyers do for their clients, which means satisfying the clients lawful requests inevitably. The request of the defendant is get me out of here. Hear the bail Reform Act comes into play and the odds aren't that the accused will be released pending trial in all but a rare case involving a murder charge. The song appears especially in the larger cities that crimes are committed frequently by persons while they are released pending trial on a fire charge. It is not uncommon for the accused when he is finally tried or enters a plea of guilty to have other indictments pending if the matter is disposed of by a guilty plea after a conviction on one charge or even after a jury verdict, there is now some evidence of a tendency to dismiss or defer the other charges and to impose a single sentence in high crime rate communities law-abiding citizens must be forgiven. I submit if they ask for their such practices are giving rise to a belief. True or not a belief that a criminal can commit two or even three primes and pay the price for only want. But this reaction may not withstand careful analysis does not alter the disturbing reality of public opinion and gendered by the evening newscasts reporting homicides and other serious crimes. This phenomenon is rate related to the actual operation of the bail Reform Act in which the likelihood of flight in most cases is the only test and no consideration is given to possible danger to the community here. We cannot be sure of all the answers because we do not know all the facts the facts we need can be found only after a very careful study one or more sample jurisdictions to Pro case-by-case Name by name and determine how many arrests have been made a persons who are on released pending trial on a prior charge only then will we know whether the bail Reform Act needs re-examination and amendments. It is a very serious matter when a whole Community becomes emotionally aroused. That's happens these days by a constant pattern of serious crimes. And we should not be heard to complain at the loss of public confidence in our legal institutions. If people come to think the government is impotent to protect its citizens. Was correct in his analysis that excessive contentiousness was an impediment to the fair administration of justice in 19 6. I doubt that anyone can prove it is any less so today? Correct or not. There is also a widespread feeling that the legal profession and judges are overly tolerant of lawyers who exploit the inherently contentious aspects of the adversary system to their own private advantage and gain and at public expense. The willingness of some of the participants to elevate procedural maneuvering above the search for truth as pound said sends out to the whole community and I use his words sends out to the whole Community a false notion of the purpose and end of the law and he saw this as a large factor in the American cynicism about the law and the urge to want to beat the law. When pound challenged the exaggerated contentiousness of the adversary system the aggressive Spirit of some American lawyers. The very contentiousness the pound said was perverting the adversary system into a sporting contest asserted itself with a tax on pound. Some of these lawyer critic spoke if you will look at the literature as though the carts were the private property and Preserve of lawyers rather than instruments for the benefit of the people. Those few connection pound did not seem to know or perhaps they didn't care that England the Cradle in which the adversary system was nurtured had worked out ways to control the damaging excesses of the contentious spirit. And anyone who has ever observed both the American and British courts of close-range knows that there is no more vigorous advocacy or Ferrer Justice anywhere in the world then and the British card send at the same time. They maintain a very strict regulation of the professional conduct of The Advocates as we do not When juries are used in England courts managed to do without spending days and weeks and sometimes many many weeks selecting a jury. And I'm happy to see that even the most Ardent opponents of stricter regulation of lawyers are beginning to have some doubts for example about whether the jury selection process which is provided as a means to ensure a fair and impartial jury should be used as a means to select a favorable jury. Other conditions that caused dissatisfaction in 1960 are still with us to have their times squandered. They are courthouses in confusion caused by poor management within the carts. The delays and high costs and resolving civil disputes continue to frighten. Potential litigants from coming to the carts and those who persist an ultimately gain a verdict often see up to half of the recovery absorbed by fees and expenses. Did laying in criminal cases and our propensity for multiple trials and appeals shop lawyers and judges and social and political science scientists of other countries of the world. There is nothing incompatible between efficiency and Justice any fishing carts cause delay and increase expense, they diminish the value of the small litigants who cannot manipulate the system are off and exploited to use the words of moorfield Storey the former president of the American Bar and one of the founders of the NAACP. Exploited by the litigants with the longest purse that's his description the litigants with the longest purse and we know who that is. Every person in this conference knows that the long purse has been used to produce long delay. And a depreciated disposition of the case that depreciated judgment efficiency. Like the trial itself is not an end. It has as its objective the very purpose of the whole system to do justice. Inefficiency drains the value of even adjust judgement either by the delay or the excessive cost or both. It is time therefore to ask ourselves, whether the two rules of procedure the methods of judicial process that develop slowly through the evolution of the common law and were fitted to a rural and agrarian society are entirely suited without change to the complex modern society of the late 20th century and what we will have to meet in the 21st century. Only when we see that some of the causes that pound spoke of of the satisfaction of the 1960s still with us and when we contemplate the enormous array of new problems that have accumulated since then and those yet to come do the dimensions of our problem begin to emerge. atopic selected for this conference beginning Later on this evening, maybe raise and some Minds the idea that our objective is to reduce access to the carts of cars. That is not the objective. For what we seek is the most satisfactory the speediest and the least expensive means of meeting. The legitimate needs of people in resolving their disputes. We must therefore open our minds to consideration of means and forums that have never been tried before. Even if what we have now. Has been tolerable for the first three quarters of this century. There are questions whether that will do for the final quarter and even Graver questions of whether that will do for the next Century to illustrate, but by no means to limit but may suggest some areas of concern to all Americans whatever their position in our society. In these areas. I submit we must be prepared to probe for fundamental change and major overhaul rather than simply tinkering first. Ways must be found to resolve minor disputes fairly and more swiftly than any president judicial mechanisms make possible. Play The Edmund kind of New York University reminded us that few things rankled in the human breast. like a sense of Injustice and the amount involved has very little to do with it with few exceptions. It is no longer economically feasible to employ lawyers and conventional litigation processes for many of the minor or small claims. And what is minor is a subjective and variable Factor this means But there are few truly effective remedies, for example, for usury in a relatively small contract for shoddy merchandise for shoddy services on a television or a washing machine or a refrigerator or a poor Roofing job on a home. This also means that lawyers must re-examine what constitutes the practice of law for lawyers will refuse minor cases on economic grounds that they can't perform the service. They are not insist that only lawyers May deal with such cases. It is time to consider A New Concept that has been approached from time to time and has a background in other countries to illustrate rather than propose. We could consider the value of a tribunal consisting of three representative citizens or perhaps to non-lawyers and one specially trained lawyer or a pair of legal invest in that kind of a tribunal final and unreviewable authority to decide certain kinds of minor claims. Flexibility on informality should be the keynote in such tribunals and they should be available at a neighborhood in community level and during evening hours as well as during conventional business hours. Japan for example has only a fraction of the lawyers and judges. We have per 100,000 population. But in Japan Pharma litigation is far less than in the United States due to a long history of informal community and private process is for resolving disputes without litigation intense without lawyers judges and the attendant expense and the delays that are involved. Second the work of the carts. Is increasing and as it increases delays and costs will rise and the well-developed forms of arbitration should have a wider use than they not have in this country lawyers judges and social scientists of other countries cannot understand the failure of this country to make greater use of the arbitration process in the settlement of disputes for their large or small. I submit a reappraisal of the values of the arbitration process is in order to determine whether like, the administrative procedures act for example arbitration convert litigation into other channels. Third ways must be found to simplify and reduce the cost of land title searches and the related expenses of acquiring a home in financing it in order to help offset the enormous rise in land and construction cost. better now creating barriers to homeownership With the developments in recent years, I can hardly think of anything more likely a candidate for the use of modern computer technology than the maintenance of land records in the process of examining slam titles having spent a good deal of time in the early years of my practice in the musty but usually cool vaults of the courthouses in this state. Manual in painstakingly charting out multiple transactions in a chain of title and having now seeing something and what a computer can do. I am persuaded that this is one area the legal profession should take the lead in making a change that will reduce the cost of examining titles to a fraction of the present figure and release lawyers for other useful tasks more useful than that fourth ways must be found to simplify and reduce the cost of transmitting property at death probate procedures can be simplified without diminishing certainly of title. As a native Minnesota Governor to the temptation to note that a wholesome step has been taken by the Minnesota Legislature in the farm of the modern probate code and although I must not left my native Minnesota loyalties lead me to say the Minnesota has spoken the last word or that it has the perfect probate code. It has taken a significant step forward typical of this Progressive State V ways must be found to give appropriate weight to ecological and environmental factors without foreclosing the development of needed Public Works and industrial expansion because of the inordinate delays and litigation involved in such case the accommodation of the conflicting values demands that there be a swift resolution of those cases. So as to avoid the waste involved in suspending the execution of Large projects to which fast public or private resources have been committed. This country has appropriately committed itself to protecting the environment but we must also build needed schools homes and Roads and in the process provide jobs 6th. New ways must be found to provide reasonable compensation for injuries resulting from the negligence of hospitals and Doctors Without the gross Distortion in the cost of medical and hospital care that we have witnessed in the past few years. This is a high-priority 7th. New ways must be found to compensate people for injuries from the negligence of others without having the process take years to complete and consume up to half of the damages awarded. The workman's compensation statutes which have a long history furnish a useful guide for the development of new processes and essential standards. If it is time to explore new ways to deal with such family problems as marriage child custody and adoptions for example We must see whether it is feasible to have relationships of such intimacy and sensitivity dealt with outside the formality and potentially traumatic atmosphere of the carts. 9 70 years since pound criticized the sporting theory of Justice. I was seeing some major advances aimed at simplifying procedure at both the trial and appellate levels guards develop pretrial procedures in the 1920s the adoption in 1938 of the federal rules of civil procedure was a major step toward of pervasive simplification of procedure here again, my native Minnesota loyalties prompt me to recall that one of the most distinguished lawyers ever to come out of this state's William DeWitt Mitchell who was solicitor general and later Attorney General of the United States chaired the committee that drafted the federal rules of civil procedure now, however, after more than 35 years experience with pretrial procedures, we hear widespread complaints that they are being misused and overused. Increasingly in the past 20 years. However, responsible lawyers have pointed to a buces of the pretrial procedures in civil cases. The complaint is that the pretrial procedures are being used to require them to try the case twice the responsibility for correcting this lies with lawyers and judges for The Cure is directly in our hands the judicial Conference of the United States has a standing committee on rules and an advisory committee on civil rules. I will request indeed I have requested. The judicial Conference standing committee on rules to conduct hearings on any proposals that the legal profession considers appropriate. we have an obligation to provide all necessary Legal Services at the lowest reasonable cost and when the procedures become Obsolete and increase the expense those procedures should be corrected. This conference will not settle or solve problems. But we hope it will unsettle some of our assumptions assumptions that may no longer be valid. Our objective in this Gathering is to stimulate future studies and other conferences to treat in-depth the unsatisfied needs that we hope to identify in these next few days. Ever since Magna Carta common law lawyers have recognized that the law is a generative mechanism sharing with nature the capacity for growth and adaptation. The changes in seven and a half centuries since then. Demonstrate the change is a fundamental law of life and certainly of the law. And even our need and our urge for stability and continuity must yield to that immutable law. What is important is that lawyers fulfill their historic function as the healers the healers of society's conflicts and fulfill their responsibilities to preside over orderly change. It is now up to us to demonstrate whether we will be able to adapt the basically sound mechanism of our system of laws. To the new conditions which will confront Us in the next 25 years and into the 21st century. You heard one Burger the Chief Justice of the United States giving the keynote address to the National Conference on the problems and possible reforms of the American Judicial System conference being held in St. Call Chief Justice. Took his theme from a speech on a similar subject given a 1906 at the Minnesota state capitol by Roscoe pound. Mr. Burger urged his judicial colleagues to see fundamental solution to problems which may face the legal system by the end of the century washing at the same time that changes have to be monitored to see if they will work as well as intended leave chief justice and Justin to that several specific areas need fundamental change suggested that there must be better resolution of minor disputes, perhaps to Neighborhood tribunals. He suggested there be simplified Land Title searches and reduced cost for home buying and finessing lyrics that the cost of probate beer. Andy called for the development of new ways of dealing with family problems such as marriage child custody and adoption. Call broadcast of this program was made possible with funds provided by the Minneapolis Star technical director. Was David felland, this is Bob Potter speaking and your tune to the Stations of Minnesota Public Radio.