St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-11

seems to foster ''newness." Scarcely
week passes but some new scheme /:
conceived up in this country. One Of
| the newest OF the new enterprises
is one origicatlng in Minneapolis
and having for its purpose the reduc
ton OF the practice of the law to CON-
mercial basis. The business of the coun.
try is becoming centralized, as is wit
messed by the railway pools, the trusts,
the department stores and the compa
MES for repairing clothes. cleaning
windows, distributing advertising and
doing the thousand and one things form
erly done by the individual. In Minnie
apolis the Interstate Law Advisory and
Collection association has been organ
lied.
There arc two distinct features of it
the commercial and the legal. The
former is exclusively Of business
nature, conducted by business men in
such a manner as a merchant might
conduct his mercantile affairs; and the
latter, or legal feature, is identical with
a purely professional law firm. The
one is devoted to the obtaining oil
patronage, securing competent EN-
ployes, including the lawyers them
selves, and in all other respects manag-
ing the affairs of the association, while
the LAWYERS attend 10 the legal matters
of the patronage so secured, and MOTH
ing more. The company expects to
work like this:
There will be different legal depart
ments, such as commercial, insurance,
real estate, criminal, etc, each in charge
of lawyer skilled in his particular
branch of the law, and whose duties are
wholly confined to that branch. In q
word, it is a division of legal labor,
analogous to the division of labor In the
industries. The legal staff is completed
with an advocate whose cases are pre-.
pared for him by the aforesaid legal
specialists, and whose sole duty 1t Is 10
present them to the court and jury In
the most Skillful manner.
A schedule of fees, so far as practical
be, is prepared, so that prospective
patron-or clIent-may know in advance
him. InaSmuch as the lawyers will al
ways be occupied, unlike the present
system, whereby they have too much
leisure, these fees can be much less than
the individual lawyer or law firm can
afford to accept. And SO with the court
advocate. AS he will be always in
court, the charge made patron for his
services will be measured by the actual
time consumed by him in trying the
case, whereas the individual lawyer
must frequently spend two or three days
in the court room waiting fOrahiS case TO
be called, and not knowing precisely
when it may be called, and must, OF
course, charge for his time thus con-
sumed in waiting, as we'll as for the &C
tual time of trying the case. Thus 1t
will be seen that experts in each depart
ment and at each stage of case may
perform services for patrons at fixed
and comparatively reasonable charges.
The collection department is an ad-
junct of the law advisory, and it will
have correSpondents-la most
of the towns and cities of the United
States and Canada. Ultimately the law
advisory will have branches in the prin-
cipal centers of both countries. The
law advisory is the offspring of M. w.
fertile brain, and he is its
president and general solicitor, or cOun-
sci.
The institution has not been incor-
pOrated, but will be in a few days. The
promoters figure that they can give
man legal service by this plan for less
money than a good lawyer can and, at
the same time. give him better service,
because each case will be prepared by
specialist, whereas the lawyer Of today
is compelled to distribute his study
over all branches. For instance, the
general practitioner in law ranks with
specialist, in preparing real estate
case. as a general practitioner in medi-
cine does with specialist in the treat
ment of diseased eyes.
The Minnesota Loan and Trust Co.
Allows per cent interest on siX-months
deposits.