The record-union., 1891-02-08
LAWYERS AND CLIENT.

The general idea, and it is assiduously
cultivated, is that the lawyer is the sug-
gestor of the technical defenses set up, or
the humanity and mean prosecutions pro-
NOTED. In fact the lawyer generally pre-
sents case as his client wishes it. Mr..
Homer Green has stated this truth in an
incisive manner, in recent paper in the
North American Revie,0, in the course of
which he says:
Suppose every prospective litigant were to
relieve himself of all manner of blame before
seeking the services of a lawyer, were to APP
pologize If an apology was called for, pay
money II money were due, confess and plead
guilty II he had done wrong or committed
crime, and, having exhausted every effort of
the kind that u nice sense of honor would de-
mand, suppose he were still compelled to 20
to law to obtain or protect his rights, what
would the result be if he should lay the mat
ter fairly before his attorney and say: 81 want
this case tried openly and honorably. don't
want suspicion of unfairnesS or prejudice or
undue advantage of any kind to attach 10 it
in any way?" Why, the result would be that
the attorney would obey instructions and do
so cheerfully. And If the opposing attorney
were similarly instructed, what an unusual
and refreshing spectacle there would be in
court when the case should come on for trial?
Yet there are Few attorneys who would not
rather, and far rather, conduct cause after
this fashion than with the usual concealment.
evasion, eNaggeration and strained logic, If
only they could be satisfied of the approval of
lie.
That is a fair and sustainable statement
on generally misunderstood subject. If
it is replied that the high-minded lawyer
will not lend himself to the wishes of a
client who demands the pursuit of
methods objected to, the reply is to be
made that he is justified in hiring to pre-
sent his clients case in any manner that
the law permits.
fixes the boundaries OF the lawyers duty.
Within such limits it is as honorable to
pursue the clients policy, as it is for the
merchant to supply the customer with
what he wishes, irrespective of his own
judgment as to its fitness.
But we apprehend that the people who
are loudest in their EXPLANATIONS against
lawyers for conducting cases upon hard
and technical lines, are the people who
will themselves, if caught by the heels in
law suit, insist that every device per-
missable under the law shall be applied
to eXtricate them. The high-minded
lawyer, proud of his profession and be-
heving it to be the chief among all, will
not permit, even before the most alluring
temptation in the way of fee, any
schemes to be availed of in his name
that are not justified by the law and the
ethics of the profession.
What lawyers refuse to do; the tempta-
tions they put aside; what settlements
they effect between disputants; what liti-
CATION they prevent by wise advice; what
breaches they close by kindly counsel,
the world knows little of. What the
world is informed upon, however, is the
action of lawyers when contestants, I'M
able to adjust their differences out of
court, come into it, each insisting that
every possible permissible advantage
shall be awaited of. There are lawyers and
lawyers, but the lawyer Of the day, in his
manliness and method, is, as rule, level
with the clientage he has, and certainly
is oftener superior to it.