The daily gazette., 1879-04-25
THIRD EDITION
A STARTLING DEVELOPMENT.

Can Unscrupulous Ldwyers Procure
Legal Dirorces for their Clients ,oith-
out the Parties Thereto Going through
any Formalities
An attache of the New York World,
reports to the editor of that joursal,
that having been instructed in writing
10 test the practice OF advertising d.
vorce lawyers in that city. with a view
to theiI exposure, he, being an unmar-
ried man, made apphca aon to lawyer
advertising in one of the papers of that
city to provide illegal Iii divorces within
thirty days"-.'scaDdals avoided"-s'fee
contingent. t."-Pretending to be a poor
man tired of his " ie, he found the law
yer ready to undertake his case for re-
uining fee of ten dollars, and to COM
plete it aud hand him the decree of di-
vorce from his imagi nary wife for a fur
ther final payment OF thirty dollars. The
reporter persuaded the attorney to be-
lieve that he was married, and that his
wife lived in StJohn's New brunswick;
that he had been married two years, was
tired of his wife and wished to be free,
having separated from her. The ground
upon which divorce was claimed was
''incompatibility of temper" and the at
torney agreed, his clieut pretending
snueamishness. to arrange about the
sworn complaint to be filed. The same
obliging legal adviser procured from Il e
spurious wife il New Brunswick (per-
sonated by one of the repo rier's friends
an admission OF service of papers upon
fraudulent statement, and later in the
same deceptive manner, waiver of all
other service OF papers. The first inter.
view with the lawyer took place on
January 10, and on March II, two
months later, the client received a de-
cree of divorce fiom the DO nds of matri.
mony, purporred to have been granted
by John I. Walworth, judge OF the fist
judicial circuit of Wisconsin.
Thus, so far at least As attorney and
client were concerned, an unmarried
man was enabled to go through all the
motives OF a divorce suit and get "A de-
cree. If he had been married and had
been thus unmarried the reporter nigh,
and could have remarked upon the
strength aud record of the proceedings
NO one appeared in person on eitbeI
side; the affidavits were forgeries; the
summonses were not served, and the
returns to them were fraudulent, and vel
the proceedings were complete from the
very beginning of the case ts the duly
authenticated record of the decree
These facts are very startling, the more
SO that If they can be done in one cit,
they may be done in another. wherever
attorneys as INSCRIPTIONS as this one /.
represented to be may exist. As the
World remarks in its editorial comments
upon the reporters story, "the cast
makes it frightfully clear that the meth
DDS which this lawyer in this case sue
cessfully pursued can be successful,
pursued in any Other. case, and there cal
be but little doubt that many parties ar,
now really In the position in which GU
reporter was assumed by his unscrupu
ious attorney to be- II is even probabl,
that we shall be able to produce, at n,
distant date, the stories of persons VIII,
have been practically deluded or de
frauded by the methods now exposed.
1t may be that when the sequel of the
story is told, IL will be found that the d =
cree was forgery, and that some rea
wives and husbands have been made tn,
victims of a similar sort of fraudulent di
Torces. The domestic misery caused b,
such practices as that of these unscrupu
lous attorneys and pretenders must b
very great.