THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 3, 1995 TAG: 9503310015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
At age 87, senior U.S. District Judge Walter E. Hoffman has been a federal judge more than 40 years and a legend for decades.
In the late 1950s, at the cost of many friendships, he played an key role in the desegregation of Norfolk public schools. In June 1958, he ordered all-white schools to accept 151-black applicants in the coming school year.
Often dispatched to try politically hot cases elsewhere, the fearless judge sentenced a vice president, a Las Vegas federal judge and, in West Virginia, a popular governor and a popular mayor.
One of the judge's greatest but lesser-publicized contributions to the law came in 1962, when he launched the ``Rocket Docket,'' a system to greatly speed up justice.
On July 31 that year, he wrote attorneys in the Norfolk and Newport News divisions:
``With an excess of 750 civil and admiralty cases pending on the dockets in Norfolk and Newport News, it is apparent that there must be a drastic change in procedure relating to the preparation of cases for trial in order to effect a saving in court time, jury expense, last-minute settlements, expenses of expert witnesses, and many other factors too numerous to mention.''
The next day he issued a lengthy order that has sped up justice ever since.
As staff writer Marc Davis reported recently, except for an obscure one-judge court in Oklahoma, the federal courts of Eastern Virginia - Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond and Alexandria - are the fastest among the 94 federal judicial districts.
On civil cases, Norfolk federal court is three times faster than average.
As has often been said, ``Justice delayed is justice denied.''
Fast trials are cheaper. Witnesses' memories are sharper. The public's confidence in justice erodes when cases drag on and on. Speedy trials are a greater deterrent to crime than ones in the sweet by-and-by.
The O.J. Simpson trial would be moving twice as fast if Hoffman were at the helm.
About two days a week, the judge still works in his office at the Norfolk federal courthouse, which was named after him in 1982.
In all that matters in court - particularly integrity, wisdom and speed - he has been a force. by CNB