The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-02-07
Employment of Special
Counsel by State Boards.

with the Jacksonville TimeS-Union on
the question of paying big attorney S
fees for legal assistance for the attor-
ney-general in the land cases which
have resulted from the action of the
board of trustees of the internal i'm
proyement fund in refusing to grant
certain lands to the railroad corpora
tons. The Recorder says:
The Times-Union says the attorney
general ought to represent the state
in the the big land suits. That paper
will deceive a good many honest peO-
pie, no doubt, with that argument, but
to any one who knows the facts it
will not have any weight whatever.
The fact is the encouragement OF
Florida has more work than he Can
do. II is a physical impossibility for
one man to attend to all the work that
is now the duty of the attorney gener-
al to do. The idea of the entire legal
work In all these big land cases being
placed entirely on the attorney gener-
al when he already has duties more
than he can attend to is simply re-
diculous. The corporations have Sc
lawyers in Florida to represent them
in these land suits. Would it be bust
ness-like for the state to rely on the
services of one man especially when
he already has more duties to per
form than he can attend to?
II the attorney general of Florida
has more work than he can we'll at
tend to he should be provided with as
sistance, but when he secures the as
sistance of other lawyers he should
make as good deal for the state as
| if he were employing lawyer to as
sist him in some private case in which
the state had no interest.
1t seems to us that every matter
of this nature should at least come un-
J der the supervision of the attorney
general, and if he is not able to per
sonally look after it, then it should
| at least be done in his name and the
lawyer so employed should be under
his supervision, and subject to such
| instructions as the Encouragement
might desire to give him.
I AS the matter now stands. the Sttor-
ney-general has nothing whatever TO
do with the employment of these law
yers- If he needs assistance in a mat
! ter connected with the railroad COM
mission, that body, and not the attOr-
ney-general, employs the lawyer, OF
lawyers. On the other hand if the
| internal improvement board needs
counsel in a case in which il is i'm
possible for the encouragement 10
serve them, that board employs its
own attorney
What makes the case look even
worse is the report that this retained
lawyer for the internal improvement
board receives salary just twice as
large as that paid the attorney-gen-
eral. though the Office of attorney to
the !. l. Board is not provided for
by any statute that We have been able
TO find
We do not believe the act of The
internal improvement board in this
respect will meet with the approval
of the people OF this state, and we
hope that the boards litigation will
soon be in such shape that it can
discontinue these special services. %
For Five thousand dollars a year. and
expenses, the board should be able
to, secure the services of any of the
best lawyers in the south, and a sood
lawyer would not need ten years 10
straighten out its affairs
The Journal is opposed TO this sys,
tenn of employing special counsel for
the state, and We shall have more tC
say along this line when We secure a
copy of the report of the internal I'M.
provement board just made public.