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From the Civil War （1861-65） to the early 20th century，the state courts were beset by other problems.Increas-ing industrialization and the rapid growth ofurban areas created new types oflegal disputes and resulted in longer and more complex court cases.The state court systems，largely fash-ioned to handle the problems of a rural，agrarian society，were faced with a crisis ofbacklogs as they struggled to adjust. One response was to create new courts to handle the increased volume of cases.Often，courts were piled on top of each other.Another strategy was the addition ofnew courts with jurisdiction over a specific geographic area.Still another response was to cre-ate specialized courts to handle one particular type of case.Small claims courts，juvenile courts，and domestic relations courts，for example，became increasingly prominent. The largely unplanned expansion of state and local courts to meet specific needs led to a situation many have referred to as fragmentation.A multiplicity oftrial courts was only one aspect offragmentation，however.Many courts had very narrow jurisdic-tion.Furthermore，the jurisdictions of the various courts often overlapped. Early in the 20th century，people began to speak out against the fragmentation in the state court sys-tems.The program ofreforms that emerged in response is generally known as the court unification move-ment.The first well-known legal scholar to speak out in favor of court unification was Roscoe Pound，dean of the Harvard Law School.Pound and others called for the consolidation of trial courts into a single set of courts or two sets ofcourts，one to hear major cases and one to hear minor cases. A good deal ofopposition has aris-en to court unification.Many trial lawyers who are in court almost daily become accustomed to existing court organizations and，therefore，are op-posed to change.Also，judges and other personnel associated with the courts are sometimes opposed to re-form.Their opposition often grows out offear of being transferred to new courts，of having to learn new procedures，or of having to decide cases outside their area ofspecializa-tion.The court unification movement，then，has not been as successful as many would like.On the other hand， proponents of court reform have se-cured victories in some states.