Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-04-20
Official Fees.

n correspondent Writes TO us COM
planning of gross overcharscs in the
sheriff's office. not only in the matter of
that ,ilicial's costs, but of his expenses
of advertising and printing bills for the
sale of real estate which comes under
his hammer. Upon inquiry Of the pre-
sent deputy, who was also deputy under
Sheriff Strine, and upon examination of
Il large number of bills of costs in such
cases on the Sheri1f's books. we can find
nothing to Justify our infoI1nant's 5 ale
CATION OF from S2O to $40 charged for
such advertisements, and from SO to
S2j for the sale bills. If he can direct
us any specific cases in which such
charges have been made or illegal fees
taken by any county official the INTEL
LlGENCEH will be glad to expose them.
IN the regular current of public affairs,
every theft Of money, under the sarb of
fees for services rendered, is proper
subject for public animadversion. The
law making power of the commonwealth, l.,
aware of the natural disposition of man
TO get all hc can, wisely provided that
officials in public station should he paid
a reasonable compensation for the ser
vices rendered to the public, and de-
clared what should he charged for every
service rendered by those in official place.
This is known as the fee bill. Every person
having business in any of the courts OF the
commonwealth, and in any of the offices
necessary in the administration of JUS
tice, has the right to consult this bill :;
and if the charges are greater than the
law allows for each item Of service he
has the right to demand that only such
service shall epaid for rs is provided
for by law, and ut such rate rs the law
prescribes.
We are also advised that there are il
legal fees asked and taken, as a general
thing, in the prothonotary's office, es-
pecially in such cases as of inquisitions
of lunacy, inquisitions against habitual
drunkards, sales of property under orders
of the court of common pleas, &c. In
these the costs, when paid, are all
marked as 'paid;' but there is no taxa
tion of costs on the record the costs
collected by the prothonotary are in ex-
cess Of the amount provided for these
costs in the fee bill, but when the auditor
to audit the accounts of the county
officials with the state goes over these
records, he holds the prOthonOtary &C
countable only for the legal fees, and the
excess charged is all profit for that Off
cial.
Indeed there is good ground for com
plant that the charges of fees in our
county offices are mostly overcharges,
and that the movement begun by the
bar some years ago to remedy this, re-
sulting in the preparation and publi-
cation of a fee bill, has resulted in no
protection to the public. These undue
spoils of the offices make them the stakes
Of greedy and expensive struggles to get
them, and the people have to foot the
bills, the lawyers maintaining that they
cannot afford to make individual re-
sistance to the exactions of officials on
whose accommodation they must SO
largely depend, and accordingly they
let their clients he robbed.
The fees Of the public officers as al
lowed by law are at this time but little
in excess of what they were forty years
ago, and yet If anyone will put himself
to the trouble to investigate the charges
for clerical service, then, and compare
them with what such services are now
charged against parties in interest, he
Vim ind that the present charges arc
about three times - much % they were
forty years ago. How II Il that the