The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-01-09
THE UNCLAIMED FEES
Do Not Amount to Great Sum Under
the Present Plan.
NOTIFIED THROUGH THE MAILS
when Costs Are Paid In, which Gives
witnesses an Opportunity to Call
and Get Their Money Ques-
tionable Brokerage Busi-
ness CoiIapses.

ness CoiIapses.
One of the problems that comes to the
clerk of courts in the discharge of his
duties is to provide for the collection
of the costs made by litigants in their
legal battles. Having collected the
money he is then brought to face the
question of paying it out to the parties
to whom it rightfully should go. And
this is not always as easy a job as
might be imagined. Upon the surface
of things it would seem as a contin-
gency of things certain to follow, that If
a man had money coming to him and
only had to go to the clerks office to
get it, that he and the money would be
sure to get together. But there are
hundreds Of dollars lying in the county
treasury waiting for claimants, testify
ing daily that such is not always
necessarily the case.
From all over the county people come
to testify in cases on trial and they
are all entitled to compensation at the
rate of 81 q day for each days at
tendance at court, and five cents mile
for every mile they travel to get there.
This amounts to thousands of dollars
every year. These witness fees must
be paid by the litigants, generally by
the fellow who gets knocked out in the
trial of the lawsuit. 1t is very seldom
that he pays the money in to the clerk
while the witnesses are about so they
can get 1t before going home.
Up to the time of Clerk Casselman's
administration there never was any
way for these witnesses to know when
their fees had been paid in. Sometimes
1t goes for a year or more before costs
are settled and sometimes they are
never settled. These facts were well
known to the average citizen and If he
was busy man very often it happened
that he never bothered himself about
his fees and never went to get them.
Most of the sums are for small
amount, the average probably not be-
ing more than $1.75.
With this situation to provide for
the laws of the state make it manda-
tory upon the part of the clerk to turn
over once year to the county treasurer
all such court costs that have not been
called for that he has had in his posses
sion for year This he is to do on
the first day of January.
When Mr.. Casselman came into office |
he solved new plan. He got a lot of
postal cards printed and now Just as
soon as the costs in any case are paid
in, one of these postals goes to the wit
ness who has fees coming to him and |
he is told to come and get his money. |
The ordinary citizen does not need a |
second invitation of this kind. He goes. |
He gets his cash and proceeds on his |
way rejoicing. The plan is working ad- |
1t not only saves the clerk a |
lot of annoyance due to haggling with |
irate witnesses who think they ought |
to be getting their fees whether they |
are paid in or not, but the fellows who |
earned the money by the sweat Of their |
brOws, and the chap who squirms under |
the merciless catechism of opposing |
lawyers, in witness box, is earning his |
money by the sweat of his brow: get |
what they have earned and they get it |
ALL
In times past there were fellows who |
had not much else to do who made a |
right respectable living by going around |
and buying up the witness fees of those |
who had testified, at about so cents on |
the dollar, or even less. They never |
bought any that were not good and they |
Systematically made from 100 to 800
per cent on their investments. But Mr.. |
plan has practically stop |
ped this style of brokerage. He deals |
with the witnesses direct and lets them
know just what is coming to them and
when it is coming. And Mr.. Cassel-
mans witness fee book, which a News |
Democrat representative looked over to-
day, shows that the witness and his
money are being brought together in
good shape. In fact the plan Is work
ing so well that when the first of
January comes around each year 1t finds
the money SO closely paid out that there
is not enough in the clerks hands to
make a respectable showing and Mr..
Casselman has never made the regular
return to the treasurer at the begin
ming of the years. At the close of his
first term last August he then turned
over all the unclaimed costs in his
possession so as to start the new year
clear. For the entire three years OF
his first term he had only a little over
5000 to take to the treasurer. This was
nearly all fees belonging to people who
had died, moved away or whose address
was not known and who therefore could
not be found. But the money can
still be secured by the proper parties
by going after 1t. II 1t is never called
for for the county Will be just SO much
better off.