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OME months ago it became neces

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sary to decide whether the American Case Book Series should have a single collection of cases on pleading, compiled and arranged with the idea that pleading should be and would be taught in one course as a single subject, manifesting itself in three slightly different, but fundamentally alike, systems, or whether there should be three collections of cases, one for common-law, one for equity, and one for code pleading. This seemed, on reflection, to be a difficult problem. It was finally decided to gather information as to what was being done concerning pleading in the law schools of the country, and to obtain the opinions of the teacher of pleading on the immediate problem and related questions. To that end printed questions were prepared and mailed to seventy-four different law schools. Replies of some kind were received from thirty-five schools. They came from all grades of schools. Most

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of the large schools of high standing replied. replied. Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Nebraska, and California may be mentioned as representatives of this class. Many more modest schools sent in answers. Their answers were often very valuable. On the whole, the replies were probably fairly representative of all grades of schools, Personal acknowledgment of these replies was obviously too burdensome to be undertaken. I therefore take this opportunity to thank all those who responded to any inquiries. I appreciate what a nuisance it is to a busy man to be asked to answer a lot of questions. At the suggestion of Mr. Mason, I have tabulated the answers received, and the result is this paper. The table, which is given below, and which states the amount of time devoted to the various branches of pleading and practice work. is plainly not derived wholly from the returns to my circular letter. Those

returns have been supplemented by an examination of the annual catalogues or announcements of many schools.

The title of this article reveals my well-founded belief as to the inaccuracy of these statistics taken as a whole. For some schools they are correct; but for many they are only approximately right, and I fear that for some they are positively wrong. In many cases the work on pleading is so mixed with the work on practice that one can only guess at the probable division of time between the two. Sometimes the professor in charge of pleading in the school did the guessing for me. He could, of course, estimate it more accurately. But in several cases the reply to my inquries did not separate the two kinds of work. Then I had to do the guessing myself. Also in the case of schools from which I received no reply I had to do the guessing. In making my estimates I relied mainly upon the contents of the textbooks used by the school. The hours spent by the school on pleading and practice together were distributed between the two subjects in approximately the same proportion as the space allotted to the two subjects in the text-books used. In the case of some schools the time given to each course is not stated in the catalogue. In such cases I have had to take the usual number of hours of instruction taken by students in one year and divide it by the number of courses which they were supposed to pursue in the year in which the pleading or practice work is scheduled. The quotient I have taken as the number of hours devoted to the pleading or practice course. I fully appreciate the chances for error in this. But it seemed better than to leave such schools out entirely. In the case of moot court work, my estimates have led to some surprising results. Some schools are apparently giving an

enormous amount of time to that work. Possibly I have erred in my estimates. Possibly in some cases the catalogues somewhat overstate, or do not clearly state, what is being done. Enough has been said to show how difficult it has been to avoid large errors. It would be a pleasure to me to receive corrections of this table from all schools concerning whose work the figures are incorrect. If the number of corrections sent in should warrant it, no doubt this Review would print them, so that all might have the benefit of the more accurate information.

A few comments on this table may not be amiss. It will have been noticed that at the end of the table the figures are given showing the shortest course, the average course, and the longest course in each subject or group of subjects, and also the number of schools not offering any subject or group at all. The shortest course in common-law pleading is at Albany, the capital of the greatest code state. Indeed, common-law pleading apparently is dealt with there only incidentally as an introduction to code pleading. Almost all the schools having short courses in common-law pleading are located in code states. The four schools having no courses in common-law pleading are located in New York, Iowa, California, and Texas. These are all code states. The longest course in commonlaw pleading is given in Illinois, and the only other course exceeding 100 hours is given in the District of Columbia. As all know, these are common-law jurisdictions. But a few schools in code states have rather long courses in com mon-law pleading. The University of Colorado, Notre Dame, and Syracuse may be mentioned. On the whole, we may say that the schools that slight common-law pleading are local schools in code states, and that those which over

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Table of Recitation Hours Spent by the Leading American Law Schools in Courses on Pleading and Practice.

Common
Law
Pleading

Equity Code Total Practice Practice Total Total
Pleading Pleading Pleading Courses Court Practice Procedure

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emphasize it are local schools in common-law states.

Of the schools omitting equity pleading, all but two, Dickinson and Harvard, are in code states. Harvard's omission is probably temporary. It has been taught there in the past. Dickinson, no doubt, has some training in equity pleading in its elaborate practice court system. The shortest courses in equity pleading are in code states. But most of

the long courses in equity pleading are also in code states. Of course, equity Of course, equity

pleading is important in the federal courts in all states. It is, therefore, more a matter of chance as to where the long courses are found. But, on the whole, the states having equity pleading as a part of their state practice give the subject a fuller treatment.

Of the nineteen schools which omit code pleading entirely, not one is located in a code state. The shortest course is given at Tulane, in Louisiana. The longest course is given at the University of Indiana. The second longest is at the University of Wisconsin. In general, then, we may say that code pleading is slighted in the common-law states. Chicago and Northwestern, though located in a common-law state, each have full courses in code pleading. This is no doubt due to the fact that they draw many students from neighboring, and even more distant, code states.

It was practically impossible to distinguish between the three systems, common-law, equity and code, when it came to practice work. Though fourteen schools have no practice courses, and seventeen have no practice court work, yet all but two, Denver and Harvard, have one or the other form of practice work. Dean Ames writes for Harvard that "this school deems it unwise to attempt to teach practice in a law school." However, Harvard does offer

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a couple of courses in practice, Massachusetts Practice and New York Practice, which are extra courses not counting toward a degree. And Denver offers training in practice through its Legal Aid Dispensary. Each student is compelled to work in this dispensary. Cases of poor persons are carried through the entire litigation by the student, under the supervision of an attorney and with the advice of the faculty. This is surely real laboratory work. Practice work, then, in some form, is well-nigh universal. It is far beyond the scope of this paper to discuss its value.

The largest amount of time devoted to practice courses is at Pennsylvania. This is due to the fact that they teach the local practice of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York in separate courses. Yale is second in amount of time given to practice courses, and for much the same reason. The schools that give a small amount of time to practice courses generally lay considerable stress on their practice court work.

In the Dickinson Law School, if the catalogue is to be trusted, 576 hours or more are devoted to moot court work. At least, there are this number of sessions of their court. Possibly some of the sessions are shorter than an hour. Surely some must be longer. Possibly the six sessions a week for first-year students and the like number for second-year students may be combined in some way. Certainly the time apparently given to this work seems disproportionate. The next largest amount of time given to practice court work is at the National Law School of WashingDean Carusi deems this work of very great importance. The number of hours is 324. Michigan is third, spending approximately 288 hours on moot court work. Professor Sunderland devotes his entire time to the practice

ton.

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