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Constitution. Then may I a?k how can we
project ourselves so far in the future to
determine that new courts will not be neces-
sary or needed in Maryland.
The legislature is given no flexibility
with which to work. Of course, the Com-
miteee fe^ls the functional divisions can
provide the flexibility which is needed in a
four-tier unified court system. But I am
afraid we are going to get so cluttered with
functional divisions on our lower court level
that divisions will get married within each
other and cases will not get the attention
they should have.
I visualize so many functional divisions
forming that our lower court system will
get so large we will be put right back into
another hodge-podge system, and confusion
will reign.
I frankly see no difference in a system
of this type than our present system.
We will have a four-tier system, with
such a variety of divisions, that in reality
it will not be a four-tier system at all. But
my major concern rests with the word
"exclusively".
You are in fact tying the hands of our
future legislators if indeed they feel spe-
cialized courts are necessary.
Many delegates are under the impression
that the minority added on other courts
that may be provided by law in order to
retain such courts as our orphans' court.
This is indeed a fallacy and the minority
had no intention of doing this; nor could
they, if that was their intention.
We must not forget that any specialized
court established by the legislature would
under the minority draft also be a court of
uniform jurisdiction, applicable over the
state, not just in one particular area.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kahl, you
have one-half minute.
DELEGATE KAHL: Thank you.
Delegate Mudd stated that the word "ex-
clusively" is not used in our present Con-
stitution. May I also remind you that the
word "exclusively" is not provided for in
any state constitution.
Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mudd.
DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. Chairman,
may I yield three minutes to Delegate
Hodge Smith?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hodge
Smith.
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DELEGATE J. H. SMITH: Mr. Chair-
man, fellow delegates: the minority has
told us in their memorandum that this is
the fundamental section of the article, and
then by the same token they propose to cut
the heart right out of this fundamental
section.
Yes, sir, the minority spokesman told us
that this was not a guts amendment. I
took that to mean that they did not feel
one way or another, that it was too im-
portant, that other amendments that they
would offer woud be more important, but
certainly it is an important amendment.
The Institute of Judicial Administration,
which studied the Maryland judicial sys-
tem and prepared a lengthy and well-
documented report, said that the first essen-
tial of a sound judicial system is a simple,
unified court structure, then good judges,
businesslike administration, efficient rules
and sound financing. We think we provided
these essentials in this article.
Section 5.01 sets up the simple, unified
court structure which Maryland does not
now have. In this State we have about 16
different kinds of courts. They range from
our Court of Appeals to the circuit courts,
and six of them in Baltimore City; then
we have the multiplicity of orphans' courts,
trial magistrates, municipal courts, people's
courts, justices of the peace, committee
magistrates and housing courts. The aim
of section 5.01 is to put all of this struc-
ture into a simple unified system. The mi-
nority amendment would permit this pro-
liferation of courts, which is the very thing
we are trying to get away from.
We have heard a lot about the New York
Constitution, and the fact that one of the
reasons that it failed was that it did not
provide the reforms that the people wanted
in the State of New York.
If you look at the judicial article, you
can see one of the reasons that no reforms
were offered.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Smith, you
have a little less than half a minute.
DELEGATE J. H. SMITH: The court
system in New York has about 14 different
levels, including, if you will, a peacemakers
court and an indian court, so they provide
something for everybody. I submit to this
Convention that the whole purpose of this
section is to avoid the proliferation of
courts. Please do not adopt this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
I wonder if I could reserve a few minutes
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