“An incompetent lawyer can delay a trial for months. A competent lawyer can delay one even longer”
California Attorney General Evvelle J. Younger (1918-1989) was quoted in the Los Angeles (CA) Times on March 3, 1971 about the problems of legal delay:
“An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for years or months. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.”
“Delay a trial for years or months” is often written as “delay a trial for months or years.” Younger’s comment had been included in several collections of legal quotations.
Wikipedia: Evelle J. Younger
Evelle Jansen Younger (June 19, 1918 – May 4, 1989) was California Attorney General from 1971 to 1979. Described as an exponent of steadfast moderation, he was nonetheless instrumental in enlarging the scope and power of the state’s environmental protection law. Political friends included Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald R. Ford. Running against incumbent Jerry Brown, who was then at the height of his popularity, Younger was the unsuccessful Republican Party nominee for Governor of California in 1978. His wife, Mildred, had a promising political career as a centrist Republican in the 1950s until she lost her voice by injuries suffered in a car crash. The Youngers’ only child, Eric E. Younger, became a Superior Court Judge.
3 March 1971, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Courts in Crisis—Younger” by Lynn Lilliston, pt. 4, pg. 1, col. 6:
California’s court system” is at a crisis stage and is just about to collapse,” Atty. Gen. Evelle J. Younger told the Women’s Division of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
(...)
Delay is one of the main problems, he said.
“An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for years or months. A competent attorney can delay one even longer,” Younger said.
Google Books
What a Piece of Work is Man!:
Camp’s unfamiliar quotations from 2000 B.C. to the present
By Wesley Douglass Camp
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
1989, ©1990
Pg. 174:
An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for years or months. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.
Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General of California, Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1971
12 August 1994, Indiana (PA) Gazette, “Bridge” by Phillip Adler, pg. 28, col. 1:
Evelle J. Younger said, “An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for months or years. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.”
Google Books
Return of the Portable Curmudgeon
By Jon Winokur
New York, NY: Plume
1995, ©1992
Pg. 190:
LAWYERS
An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for months or years. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.
EVELLE J. YOUNGER
30 December 1998, Financial Times (London, UK), “Lawyers call in spin doctors to boost profession’s image” by Brian Groom, pg. 1:
“An incompetent lawyer can delay a trial for months or years. A competent lawyer can delay one even longer.”
Google Books
Hilarious Lawyer Jokes: An Illustrated Caseload of Jurisprudential Jests
By Steven D. Price
New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing
2015
Pg. ?:
An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for months or years. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.
Evelle Younger
Google Books
Law’s Strangest Cases:
Extraordinary but true tales from over five centuries of legal history
By Peter Seddon
London, UK: Pavilion Books Company Ltd
2016
Pg. ?:
‘An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for years or months. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.’
When the Attorney General of California, Evelle J. Younger, delivered that somewhat cynical line in the Los Angeles Times in March 1971 he was merely echoing what those who earn a living from the legal profession have known since time immemorial. There’s little to be gained from hurrying.
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“An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for months or years. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.”
Evelle J. Younger
d 28y ago
8:52 AM - 4 May 2017