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nisi prius jurisdiction and that the judges of the
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Orphans Courts or the judges exercising probate functions
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ought to have exactly the same high degree of qualifi-
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cations. I don't think anybody questions that. I think
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one at least of the motives here is pull the Orphans Court
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up to the level of the Circuit Courts, not abolish it or
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get rid of it.
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The second thing is that I think you
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recognize that, as you mentioned a moment ago, the
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Orphans Courts are statutory courts, they are courts of
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limited jurisdiction, there are some things you can't
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do. It has never made sense to me that the Orphans Court
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frames issues and you send them up the hall or up the
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street or upstairs to another judge to try before a jury,
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because you are not deemed to have the jurisdiction,
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unless everybody agrees that it can be tried before
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you without a jury. I see no sense to that. I see no
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sense to having a judge in probate matters elected every
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four years when a judge trying negligence cases or con-
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tract matters or others has a tenure of fifteen years.
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JUDGE FRIEDMAN: I am for that.
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