St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-01

which rarely furnishes any very
large compensation. Again there
is but little doing in the way
of real estate or land cases in Eastern
cities, and these are generally fruitful of
good-siZed fees. The titles to the land
have become settled, transfers are few
and property owners, being secure in the
possession of their property, give the
legal fraternity wide berth.
An entirely different state of affairs
obtains in st. Paul. The city is young,
growing and prosperous, and the rec
OrdS of the clerk OF courts office will
show that litigation of every kind is in
creasing right along. Real estate is and
has been active, the same property
often changing hands half dozen
times in year. 1t follows, of course,
from this ceaselesS changing OF owner
ship that
TITLES BECOME CLOUDED,
disputes arise and the courts are sought
to throw their legal light upon the sub
ject.
A large part of the legal business here
consists in examining titles and attend
ing to conveyances. However, the prac-
tice in st. Paul is general, being con-
fined to no particular branch of the pro-
feSSiOn. This is center of litigation,
for located here are the federal, state
and municipal or city courts.
In a conversation with one of the
brightest legal luminaries few days
ago. he said that the fees paid for legal
services in St. Paul are larger to-day
than they ever were.
Said he: Heavy fees have never been
paid for ordinary litigation by our bust
ness men, no matter what others may
say. The fees for all classes of legal
word are fairly remunerative, and
are generally fixed by agreement
between counsel and client. Of
course, where a case demands special
time and research, and an attorney is
give it undivided attention, then price
is fixed upon commensurate with the
size of the bank account of the client.
Attorneys, like physicians, have slid
ing scale of charges, and if no prior ar
rangement is made when the case is
concluded and settlement called for,
the means of the client and the amount
recovered enter into the calculation,
Litigation in st. Paul is increasing in
importance, and the transactions are
daily becoming larger"
For the amount of work and response
bility involved, criminal business is the
poorest paid of any lawyers. That is,
those of any standing dislike this kind
of practice, for it brings them into
A INITIATED ATMOSPHERE
which is anything but pleasant. To
conduct such case properly, it is neces-
sary for the lawyer to feel the cOnvic-
tions of his client just as the client him
self does. 1t follows, then, that reput-
able lawyers. except those who have
attained national prominence through
criminal practice, lift themselves out of
it as soon as they can.
sit will be a surprise to most people
to know that there are about 800 attOr-
neys practicing in st. Paul. And it will
be source of wonder to all to under
stand how in the world half of them exc
out subsistence. These small petit
foggers are rarely seen in the higher
courts. They live oil from year to year
picking up crumbs from one source or
another, occasionally appearing in the
municipal court in defense of some poor
fellow, too poor to hire his own attOr-
ney and content with the selection
made by the state. For such cases the
state allows the muniicent sum of So
There are no records of fees paid to
counsel except in estates wound up by
the courts, and they are not disposed to
talk freely about their compensation,
but an inquiry among the leading men
at the bar as to large fees paid them in
one case during the past ten years re-
fOlI