Part-time Justice

Every lawyer dreams of someday giving up his legal practice and becoming a judge. Massachusetts, with its district court system of part-time justices, goes most states one better by allowing a man to be a judge and a practicing attorney at the same time. While this has obvious financial advantages for the men holding part-time judgeships, it has not led to the most satisfactory system of justice.

Over the years numerous legislative commissions have studied the problems of the district-court system. Most of these reports have been severely critical of a confusing situation wherein a man can act as counsel in court one day and judge the next. Whether justified or not, considerable suspicion is bound to arise that part-time judges might well allow personal legal affairs to interfere with decisions. Other doubts center on the influence a justice of a district court can have over other judges when acting as an attorney. It is clear that not until judges are kept on one side of the bench, rather than on both sides, will the public have confidence in the district courts.

In September of 1951, a survey committee made up of prominent representatives of all the Massachusetts Law Schools and headed by Vice-Dean Livingston Hall of Harvard, was formally organized to analyze the district-court system and attempt to recommend solutions for existing problems. After over a year of exhaustive analysis, the Committee came up with positive suggestions for a reorganization of the system. These suggestions were embodied in Senate Bill 247, which received a hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Legislature in March. The bill, which provided for a smooth shift to a full-time judgeship system, was then placed in committee. It has remained in committee for well over a month now and, according to key members of the Legislature, it is likely to continue pigeon-holed for a good many more months.

Senate Bill 247 has been created and endorsed by the finest legal minds in this state. Judges, lawyers, and interested citizens should not allow it to die a slow committee death as has happened before with similar bills attempting to correct Massachusetts' archaic system of part-time justice.