The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-06
LAWYERS AND LITIGATION

The prevailing opinion relative to law
yers would seem to be that, as class, they
do more harm than good in that they breed
vast amount of unjust litigation. Even
with the better informed, those who know
and admit the honorable nature of a law
yer's calling and are accustomed to seek
and rely upon his advice, we apprehend
that the general sentiment would be found
to be that he was kind of necessary evil,
1ard to be endured but of possible use at
times. So well informed a writer as Sir
Henry Maine--a man generally thoroughly
ve,sant with every subject Of which he
treats-seems to take the first and worst
view of the lawyer, his profession and the
litigation with which he is connected. In
his recent work, "The Early History of
Institutions" in commenting on the fact
that in the early forms of law procedure
the plaintiff was nearly always assumed to
be in the right and the defendant to be in
the wrong, goes on to say that II is only
when it has ceased to be troublesome and
dangerous to appeal to the law for the re-
dress of real or assumed and fancied griev-
ances that "uniust claims are seen to be al
" least as common as unjust refusals to
" satisfy claims"-or, in other words, that
now, inasmuch as an appeal to the law is
easy, comparatively cheap and attended
with but little trouble, unjust law suits are
as common, probably more common, than
those founded on just claims.
If we may judge Of the right and justice
of cause from the verdict of a jury or the
judgment of court, statistics will show
Sir Henry Names observation to be I'M
founded. In England, careful statistics
are preserved in reference to the result of
all litigation, and from these we select
those for the year 1S73-these being the
most favorable to his theory. In the &C.
tions commenced in the higher English
courts At Westminster that year, no de-
Tense was made in slxtY-fve per cent. of
them, and 10 only three per cent. of them
was there trial by jury. In more than
three-quarters of the actions tried by jury
verdict was returned for the plaintiff, the
numbers being seventeen hundred verdicts
for the plaintiff against four hundred and
sixty-two for the defendant. Thirty-eight
per cent. of the actions 80 commenced were
settled after their entry in court and be.
fore trial. and it is perfectly safe to as
sumo that in one-half of these-and the
proportion was probably very much larger
the plaintiff was right-thus concedng
that the other half were founded on unjust
claims, which is, by no means, probable
and, so assuming, it would appear that in
stead of unjust claims being as common as
unjust refusals to satisfy claims, that the
unjust refusals were five times as many as
the unjust claims. And this is concedlng
that no plaintiff was honestly mistaken in
the justice of his claim, mistook his rem
edy or was defeated by technical defense,
We believe that the statistics of litigation
In American courts would show the same
state of facts. To illustrate, let us take
the cases disposed of. on trial, at the last
term Of the Rutland county court, exclud.
ing criminal cases, although the same re-
suit would appear there. There were nine
causes tried by Jury, seven of which re-
suited In verdicts for the plaintiff, one In a
verdict tor the defendant, and one In dis
agreement of the jury. In disputable
causes heard by the court, without jury.
excluding petitions for divorce, thirty-six
resulted in judgments for the plaintiff and
four for the defendant. In petitions tor
divorce, fifteen applications were granted
and two refused. SO that Of the entire
sixty-six actlons tried, Iflfty-eight were de-
cided in favor of the plaintiff, seven in