COURTS OF CONCILIATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1722, 10 April 1888, Page 4

COURTS OF CONCILIATION.

The New York Nation of November 24 •ays;: —"A non-partisan movement is now under way in lowa to secure the enactment'by the next Legislature of a statute authorising the .establishment of what are called ' Courts of Conciliation.' Denmark ha? made th« longest and most thorough trial of this system, and its giccess has been remarkabio. Each local community is authorised to'choone a tribunal called by this name, which consists generally of one judge and two assistants, selected with inference to their high standing in the public confidence and their qualifications for composing disputes. This tribunal haw jurisdiction of every complaint upon which a civil action might be baaed, and no such action can be heard in a regular Court until it has bean laid before the Court of Conciliation, and has resulted in a disagreement, so that every cause out of which an action might arise, except in criminal CHgfls, couses first before this tribunal. The principals appear in person and tell their own stories ; witnesses are called if nscessary, but no counsel are' allowed ; and if the decision is accepted by both parties the dispute is ended, and lawyers' fees are taved, while the judgment has the same force as an ordinary Court. That the decisions are accepted in the bulk of cases appears from the fact that during the first five years of the system 116,488 cases were brought before tho ' Courts of Conciliation,' of which 74,742 were there settled, and during the next five years 190,836, of which 121,970 w*ro settled, and only half of the remainder were ever carried to actual litigation."