FOURTH-GENERATION ATTORNEY SEES DRASTIC CHANGES IN LAW

Since July 4, 1969, John Oliver Jr. has practiced law in the same office on the same floor of the same building at 400 Broadway.

It's also the same office where his father practiced law, and his grandfather before that. Even Oliver's great-grandfather, Robert Burett Oliver, Cape Girardeau County's third prosecuting attorney, practiced law in Cape Girardeau prior to the turn of the century.

Born in Cape Girardeau County on Jan. 23, 1850, R.B. Oliver graduated from the University of Missouri in 1877, when he set up a law office in Jackson.

The next year he was elected prosecuting attorney and served two terms. In 1882 he was elected to a four-year term as a state senator. They moved to Cape Girardeau in 1899, and in 1903 he was elected state representative.

His great-grandson, John Oliver Jr., said the Oliver law firm at 400 Broadway opened in 1906.

As a fourth-generation attorney, Oliver can attest to dramatic changes in law since the days his great-grandfather was a prominent Cape Girardeau County attorney.

"When my grandfather grew up, a horse and buggy was the best way to go," Oliver said. "He saw the car, airplane and a man get out of a space ship and walk on the moon all in his lifetime. The law has been through that same type of progression."

At the turn of the century, there were about 15 practicing attorneys in Cape Girardeau Country, including: Orren Wilson, Judge Burrough, T.D. Hines, Wm. H. Miller, Wilson Cramer, Maj. Dennis, R.L. Wilson, John D. Wilson, Charles Davis, D.B. Hays, Lafe Caruthers, R.H. Whitelaw, Sam M. Green, R.G. Ranney, and Louis Houck.

By the 1930 census, Cape Girardeau had 27 attorneys a lawyer for every 601 residents.

Oliver said that not only has the law changed since then, but so have lawyers.

"As a group, they're significantly less courteous and behave less like ladies and gentleman and too much like they're willing to win at any cost," he said.

When R.B. Oliver began his practice, many lawyers "read law," a sort of extended law apprenticeship.

Many lawyers started reading law, then, when the lawyer they studied with guessed they were ready to take the bar exam, they would be certified to take the test.

A former judge in the area, Rex Hanson, studied law that way, John Oliver said. Others took a more common route.

"They had law schools with law school admission, and you had to pass the bar exam," Oliver said. "The truth is, education requirements haven't changed that much."

But the actual practice of law has changed dramatically especially since the adoption of a new "civil code" in 1956, which changed the procedures lawyers follow.

"It was literally a 100-percent change in the way you practiced law," he said.

Oliver explained that when his great-grandfather practiced, all the lawyers would board a train at the start of the term of court in the various county seats, go to Commerce, Benton or Bloomfield wherever the term of court was and serve for the term.

"When they got done, they would come home and work," he said. "Then the next month they had another term. They would pack their books and records in a trunk and go to these county seats and stay for a term, which varied anywhere from a week to a month."

There also was no "discovery" stage in trials, whereby attorneys learn what type of case their opponent has compiled.

"The trial then was a trial by ambush, very literally," Oliver said. "It was just simply a question of you doing your investigation and finding out what the facts are independent of the other side's case.

"It was also a lot more formalistic, almost ritualistic than it is now. There were a lot of magic words you had to utter."

Oliver said law has changed from primarily forced "problem solving" between individuals to a hodge-podge of social engineering, personal injury cases, and frivolous civil suits.

"Some time in the '60s, people got the idea that the courts could cure all kinds of social problems, which they're uniquely not suited for," he said. "At the same time people began to lose a sense of individual responsibility."

Although lawyers today are members of a vilified and much-maligned profession, Oliver said criticism often is based in at least a small degree of truth.

The same was true in Cape Girardeau's "early days," when sleazy lawyers also were referred to as "ambulance chasers."

"Any time there are people, the same human strengths and frailties are going to come out," he said. "Some people really dedicate themselves to the job and devote their time to helping people. But you're also going to have `slimeballs.' I guess they did it on horseback back then."

Oliver said law was much more of a "profession" then as opposed to merely an occupation. Yet, he's convinced lawyers today are exposed to volumes more raw knowledge than their predecessors.

History likely will repeat itself, and guys like Oliver in 50 years will be seen as "professionals" with only a fraction of the raw knowledge available at the time.

He said computers will change the face of law in the future. Already the trend is toward computerized motions and paperwork.

"I think the computer is going to make it possible to accommodate the explosion in litigation," Oliver said. "I think that's the future.

"Instead of having basements full of paper and files, we'll have walls full of microfilm and floppy discs."