Arrangements are nearing omnpletion for beginning the new system-of trying English matrix monial suits on Assize in Michaelmas Law Term. It is understood that, at any rate for the present, only poor persons' cases will be heard on circuit, inasmuch as the question of expense is far more vital in this class of divorce case than in the ordinary class.
The Administration of Justice Act, 1920, enabled any Commissioner of Assize to try "matrimonial causes of any prescribed class and any matters arising out of or connected with any such causes," and the "prescribed" class was to be settled by the Lord Chancellor in consultation with the Lord Chief. Justice and President of the Divorce Court. Order 36 A, which has now been added to the Supreme Court Rules in pursuance of the Act, does not define what class of matrimonial suit shal] be heard at Assizes, and at first it was thought possible that it would be left to the Registrar to decide whether or not it were desirable, from the point of view of saving the parties expense and inconvenience, to try any undefended cause on circuit.
If poor persons' cases only are to be so delegated the change, from the point of view of the Bar, will not be a violent one. Neither soliciters nor counsel profit an iota from poor persons' cases (in which the legal profession perform a charitable work), and the main advantage will be to make divorce cheaper for petitioners in entirely local causes and to reduce the inflated cause list in the High Court. The question whether in addition to the King's Bench Judges who go on circuit it will be necessary to appoint special Commissioners depends on the volume of the cases listed at Assizes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.