The Courts: Traffic Jam

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Getting his case to the jury so that he collects even that much may take four years in New York City, three years in Boston, over 2½ years in Honolulu or Detroit. Courts in Los Angeles have held the delay to less than two years. In Miami the wait is less than six months—an interval many lawyers consider too short to allow the medical evidence to "ripen." But in Chicago, at the other extreme, the traffic jam is backed up for a staggering 5½ years.

Urged on by such delays, fully 90% of accident claims are brought to some sort of compromise before a jury verdict is reached. And court congestion, widely blamed on auto cases, is causing increasing pressure for court reforms. Compulsory pretrial meetings may expedite early settlements. Split trials, a new device where a jury first decides whether the defendant is liable at all, before the amount of damages is discussed, are being tried in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Some lawyers even propose a new kind of insurance that would compensate auto accident victims no matter who was at fault, eliminating the need for these negligence lawsuits.

In Chicago last week, Chief Judge John S. Boyle instituted a complete reorganization of the county circuit court: until last week, no more than eight judges were hearing personal-injury cases; now 40 fulltime judges will be assigned to these trials, with six more hearing nothing but pretrial proceedings. "We have just got to make a massive attempt," says Boyle. "People keep smashing into each other, and we must make better arrangements to get them to court."