The Man in Court

Writing for readers unfamiliar with trials, Frederic DeWitt Wells follows the ordinary observer into American courtrooms. His opening account places a visitor beside a New York night court judge, close enough to hear the cases that spectators at the back can only watch. The scene brings together officers, clerks, witnesses, prisoners and relatives waiting for decisions. Wells questions laws that add to hardship even when the officials applying them work patiently and efficiently.

From that crowded room, the book turns to the people and procedures of a trial: judges, anxious juries, lawyers, clients, pleadings and evidence. The middle excerpt follows the selection of jurors and the formal preparations before a lawyer opens a case. Courtroom ceremony, personal impressions and tactical decisions receive as much attention as legal rules. Readers interested in American legal history can use these observations to see how proceedings appeared to an outsider, and how public respect for justice could coexist with confusion about its rituals.