Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-09-27
fake DAMAGE SUITS.
They Have Become a Recognized
Menace TO Modern Life.
|NEW YORK WRESTLES With PROBLEM.
Professional Crooks and shyster Law
yers Fatten on corporations-Rase-
less Damage Claims Have Developed
Into PawnabIe Assets. ..

II
yers Fatten on corporations-Rase
less Damage Claims Have Developee
Into PawnabIe Assets.
New York World.
Pawning Of accident claims upon the
transit company is the latest thing ir
the art of ambulance chasing" that
black art which Is largely blamed fol
the corporations deficit in the last
year, and the swelling of the accident
account to nearly per cent Of the
gross receipts. . .E ....
1t is possible in Philadelphia, the
home, 1t is declared, Of the most cor
rupt and persistent chasers in this
country, for man with slight OF
faxed" injury to appear before a per-
fectly organized firm" Of trolley
pawnbrokers," and receive a loan OF
money, in return for which he signs
over his claim. Sometimes he can re-
pay this loan before the company set
ties, sometimes the settlement never
comes and the brokers are out OF
pocket.
But the days of swindling and Of the
host Of shyster lawyers, physicians and
runners who have continued their
harpy feast at the company's expense
to the exhaust point, are numbered
Arrests are promised within a few
days by the transit detectives, and a
crusade against the professional men
for whom the game has had so rich a
harvest has begun. This, 1t Is expect
ed, will drive many Of them from the
city.
How the Swindlers Work.
There is an accident. Trolley cars
crash and one is derailed. Women
scream, a crowd assemblies, and an old
man who has been bit shaken up by
the jar is led into a nearby drug store.
He isn't hurt, but a reporter gets his
name, and perhaps 1t gets into the
newspapers. Within an hour runner
for one Of the shysters is at the vic
TINS" home. He represents himself as
an attorney and proceeds to blacken
the name Of the transit company. He
persuades the old man that the heart
affection from which he has suffered
for years has been immeasurably ag-
grayated by the accident. The vic
tim consents to make a claim.
A physician is telephoned fora
colleague Of the shyster. Drugs are
brought into play to excite the pa
tient' and make him nervous, drugs
that in one case drove a man insane.
Or, as in some cases, the feet and arms
are bathed in cold water, to produce
symptoms of extreme nervous shock,
or, in the case Of slight sprain, leg
OF, an arm is incased in splints or a
plaster cast to indicate a fracture, so
that when the transit 'company's ply
sician and claim agent arrive, they are
willing to settle the $1,000 claim for
several hundred dollars. And Of this
the shyster lawyer and doctor receive
so, rs or even 80 per cent.
While the company Is settling as
many claims as 1t ever did, it Is fight
ing to the limit every suspicious case,
and the underground detective work
Of the company's agents Is as far
reaching as the ramifications Of the
crooks system they are fighting.
Increase In Suits Filed.
The remarkable number Of suits
filed against the company this year,
1,401, as against S61 Of last year,
shows that the evil is not by any
means abating. or course, all the
cases are not spurious, but many of
them have aroused the suspicious OF
the company's agents. The number of
cases filed in the various courts this
year and last year are shown In the
following table: