----Proposed Legal Reform----

----- Proposed Legal Reform -----

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CEELI
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 19:22:49 EST
From: TvFields@aol.com
To: ceeli@abanet.org
CC: sconte@abaceeli.org , oruda@abaceeli.org

An acquaintance just brought to my attention the information about CEELI at
http://www.abanet.org/ceeli/areas/judicial_reform.html

My reason for writing is to ask you to address the fact that the judicial system here in America demonstrates the same

"desperate need of reform" as do the judiciaries in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia to which the ABA provides technical legal assistance. This became clear to me as I read, for example, that

* instead of independent judiciaries, the ABA found judiciaries that were overly dependent on and often unduly influenced by government authorities and political parties.

* Judiciaries throughout the region were often used as instruments to advance the interests of the ruling elite rather than as mechanisms to protect individual rights and freedoms and promote access to justice.

* Courts are plagued with problems of corruption, further undermining the fragile public trust in fairness and efficiency of the judicial system.

For the purpose of addressing such problems, I am writing here to share with you the practical legal reforms advocated below. My hope is that you will not ignore these proposals, but instead seek further information and promote its dissemination to a public here and abroad that needs to be exposed to it.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Sincerely,

Tom Fields
6860 Georgetown Drive
Mentor, Ohio 44060
440/255-7693

----- Proposed Legal Reform -----
#1: ALL complainants will have FREE access to a jury which has been randomly selected for the purpose of reviewing their evidence and providing a response that reliably ensures the thoroughness, integrity and accountability of the judicial process.

#2: The initial action which a jury will recommend is further investigation of the complaint at public expense for the purpose of collecting evidence. When a jury recommends this action, it will oversee the investigation in order to ensure its thoroughness, integrity and accountability.

#3: Juries will retain independent experts of their own choosing, including legal counsel, medical authorities, and victims rights advocates to provide them the services which they need in order to thoroughly and reliably investigate and decide complaints.

#4: Complainants and respondents will have the right to retain at their own expense their own experts, including counsel.

#5: Whatever materials are collected or produced using public funds will be public property and promptly catalogued and reported in an online court reporting system so as to be accessible to all.

#6: Juries will decide the evidence.

#7: Juries will decide procedural questions.

#8: Juries will decide appeals.

#9: Every decision will be accompanied by a written explanation that clearly identifies the principal evidence and law that underlies it as well as the principal evidence and law that runs counter to it.

#10: No one, not even judges, will speak off the record without the recorded consent of all interested parties to each specific instance.

#11: Immunity will not be granted to any official, including judges, or quasi-officials, including attorneys, in cases alleging their misconduct.

#12: The misconduct of officials and quasi-officials will be addressed by a jury like any other complaint.

#13: Punitive damages will not be awarded to an injured party except in a class action or when an official or quasi-official agency or its representative is the responsible party. In every other case, any and all punitive damages that are awarded will be used to fund community needs such as community shelters, food banks, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. This provision has no bearing upon the award of economic and non-economic damages other than punitive damages.

#14: Complaints of negligence and fraud will not be barred by time or laches.

#15: Whenever an appeal finds negligence or fraud in a lower court's proceedings, it will return the case for a new hearing by a trial jury. The parties found responsible for such fraud will bear the expense of the new hearing.

#16: A jury that identifies a specific deficiency in the law and recommends a remedy for that deficiency will have the authority to place its recommendation on the next general election's ballot.

Additional measures have been proposed that anticipate cost-related objections. These measures make use of punitive damages and are consistent with #13 above.

Additional measures have also been proposed to address a variety of other specific deficiencies in our laws.

(End)

"THE LAW"
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/thelaw.htm