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Small Claims, Complex Disputes: A Review of the Small Claims Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1975

Barbara Yngvesson  and
Patricia Hennessey
Patricia Hennessey
Affiliation:
Hampshire College
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We take it as a matter of course that a judge should be a mere umpire, to pass upon objections and hold counsel to the rules of the game, and that the parties should fight out their own game in their own way without judicial interference … The idea that procedure must of necessity be wholly contentious disfigures our administration of justice at every point.

Pound, 1906:404-5

The possibility that any given problem might be handled in more than one way does not constitute a liability. Rather, it is a form of competition among, for instance, means of settling a dispute …. Each method of dispute settlement constitutes a different product—of differing utility to different consumers—some clearly more suitable than others for certain situations. The Justice Industry has an obligation, not simply continuously to refine one product—but to deliver new and competing products to serve the varied needs of the consumer.

Cahn & Cahn, 1966:947-48

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 9 , Issue 2: Litigation and Dispute Processing: Part II , Winter 1975 , pp. 219 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 The Law and Society Association

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