ROGERS — Federal courts rewrote their rules to make it easier to bring civil cases to trial and will continue that effort, the chief justice of the U. S. Supreme Court said Wednesday.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts presides over the U.S. Judicial Conference, a panel of judges that presides over federal court rulemaking.
He spoke Wednesday morning to the 8th Circuit Conference, a meeting of judges and practicing attorneys in that district. The conference is underway at the Embassy Suites convention center in Rogers.
Trials are delayed too long because "one side benefits from delay or thinks they do," Roberts said. Besides delaying justice, the practice is demoralizing to attorneys who have to wage a constant, burdensome effort to get to a trial, he said.