The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-28
BOLSTERED UP CASES
By ETHEL ARMIES, Story of oaI and Iron in AIabamao

Now, I mention this as just an in- stance out of many, representing ways
 and means of holding up a company, and private citizens. too, for that matter Every case of that nature should be
 fought to a finish in the courts.
 Inimical to Real Damage Suit l cases of that sort hurt the genuine, meritorious personal injury suits more than any other circumstance, in my opin-
 lon. They take up the time of the court
 to the prejudice of the man who has a
 real meritorious cause of action, and be- sides cost the taxpayers of the county
 a pile of money. Ask any good lawyer or judge if 1 am not telling the truth.
 The personal injury damage suit proper
 IS the most meritorious suit that can be brought. The act of killing man or of dlsnguring the beauty and symmetry of the human form is an act that is rrepar- able. To destroy a mans usefulness, and
 maim him to such an extent as to in- capacitate him from earning living, or
 to render him an object of repulsion, is hardly capable of being too seriously re- garded.
 1 You may take a mans horse away from him and he can get another; burn down his house and he can replace it; islander him if you will and he can live it down, but take away the eyesight, cut
 off his arm, or his leg. injure him ma terially, cause him to suffer-can this sort
 of thing be really properly compensated | in dollars and cents3s Can the lost eye
 sight be restored or the amputated arm be replaced?
 l Owing to the hazards of modern in- ldustry, and frequently to the ignorance or negligence of the employe, and some
 times the employer, accidents of a most serious and often fatal nature occur daily
 here in the Birmingham district, and for
 this reason this is an inviting field for the damage suit lawyer. Competition being keen there is much unprofessional
 soliciting and very often trivial or fake
 suits are brought to the great detrimenu of the workman. who loses his job, of. course, after having held it for years
 sometimes, and he must seek employment again elsewhere among strangers and bat
 tie anew with the stern rules of seniority
 Upon the other hand the workman
 may have received a substantial injury through the negligence of the master Now. reputable lawyers will not solicit his
 case. but the other kind go in droves after it. Finally, often through the influence of friend CD Interested in the fee of couse) he signs up with one of them and
 the chances he takes of falling into the hands of an able, honest lawyer, to ob- tain fair compensation for his injury is lapout the same as the mans who plays
 his money on the roulette wheel Now what Is the lesson? Stop the soliciting
 the ambulance chasing if you may call 1t
 that-if you care. In the case of the man with the trivial injury, he will forget it and the same rules of seniority that would Deset nm in new place will soon ad- vance him If he says in his old, and the
 court dockets will know him not In the
 case of the man with the meritorious case
 and real injury, he will go and choose his own lawyer from acquaintance or good reputation and his chance of obtaining just compensation will be taken out of the roulette wheel class, and justice bal ances itself without hurting the corpor-
 auon either, for the corporation, freed of the vampire of the trivial or fake suit can we'll afford, and would usually not object to the payment of substantial sum to settle the meritorous case and if
 1t is not settled it is soon tried and crowd
 ed off the docket by trivial and fake suits. sometimes the workman refuses readily
 to sign up with the solicitor and he will tell him that Col So and So is his law yer and that he expects to see him in due tune. The trick of the piker is to laud Col so and So into the skies as a good land, or criminal lawyer, or something of the sort but he is no specialist in damage suit law whereas I am Cor the man I am pihihg TOT ls), and the victim sometimes
 falls under the spell and signs up Why
 a miserable shyster once told the victim that II the case was put in his hands the Icompany would have a man in his office next morning by o'clock to offer S1OOO to settle, all of which was a deliberate false-
 hood. The great majority of lawyers will agree with me in what have said. Ask them If you like.
 The disposition to give the meritor
 ious claim It's just and proper due pre- vents among the corporations IT is being felt more and more that avery case should stand on its own bottom and be Judged by the light of the facts
 alone and when properly adjusted on a fair and reasonable bass-not so
 much the legal rights-this and that technicality, but the facts, human jus-
 tice and right.
 | The old policy of either fighting every case or settling every case. re- | gardless is of course immoral. The meritorious claim should be given its dues. Compensation should not be dis trlbuted to everybody, deserving or not deserving, thereby encouraging graft or within old from a single party who should have 1t, thereby encouragi O | injustice. Because of the inadeuuacy of the present laws and the system now in vogue both employer and the employe are the losers The employer loses in
 having to defray certain expenses in every suit brought against him no mat ter how groundless and trivial that case may be, and even though he de- feats the case entirely. The employe loses by being obliged often when suit is brought to go halves with his law yer, often great delays, and when he engages an ignorant or incapable law yer he is liable to lose out no matter how good a case he might have.
 l "rhe fees charged by lawyers for this class of business are entirely too high, | Fifty per cent Is entirely too much to take from the widows recovery or the | amount awarded the maimed and in-