Some interesting conundrums facing the legal world that you should be aware of.
Increase in cases due to knowledge of law?
- Massive spike in number of criminal and civil cases due to mass legal knowledge and liberal interpretation of law.
- In spite of amendments to simplify procedures, ordinary criminal trials take 15 years and civil matters extend across generations.
- While legal costs involved in establishing new laws may be significant, there is a definite need to expedite processes by reducing wordy legal documents to more crisper form.
- Some feel there should be an assessment of the cost burden associated with each new bill or legislature, along with provision for such costs.
- Another conundrum – new enactments may hinder legal processes that existing litigants would be involved in. In effect, subverting their rights for convenience of future litigants.
- Madhavan Menon, founder-director of the National Law School of India in Bangalore: “15,000 judges dispose of 1.5 crore cases annually. Add another 15,000 judges and you can comfortably wipe out the arrears in 2 years.”
- Systematic national legal surveys can forecast litigation demand and consequent court workload variations.
- Surveys can help predict future workload, and additions to the judicial machinery can be made accordingly.
- Similarly, experimental study on litigant response to a draft legislation before its introduction in parliament can assess litigation demand.
Source: DNA
A catch-22 situation neatly dissected and presented. But one wonders if such a simple answer alludes great legal minds of today, or whether there is more than meets the naive eye.
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