Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-19
SAMUEL A. BOYLE
On LEGAL Aid Bureau Of Municipal cour'

On LEGAL Aid Bureau Of Municipal Court
THE Cancellation, Small Claims and Legal
i Aid Division Of the Municipal Court
gets a variety Of work that is probably not
duplicated by any other legal organization
in the country, according to Samuel A.
Boyle, who Is in charge Of that division.
"A large part of our work." said Mr..
Boyle, Originates in the Municipal Courts
at Twenty first and Race and Twelfth and
Wood streets. and the Juvenile Courts at
Twenty second and Arch and Twentieth and
Summer streets, although there are many
other sources from which cases nre sent to
us for settlement or adjustment.
Criminal Procedure Used
I'm the latter cases where necessary, We
usually effective. Many poor persons have
bought stock which was absolutely worthless
and have brought their claims to us. We
notify the so.cnlled broker and, of course,
are referred to counsel by him. Our line
Of procedure is to inform them that unless
the money is returned, we will Immediately
take the case before magistrate and this
Is usually sufficient. In one recent case,
an elderly woman had bought 500 worth of
valueless stock and then could not locate
an investigation, found the man and got all
Of her money back.
''In another case, woman had paid
about $40O for stock, which. while not per.
haps worthless. was certainly not worth
anything like the sum she gave for It. We
got $50 back and also were able to retain
the securities, such as they were, for the
woman.
1.-THE fake insurance companies usually
work among the colorcd people and sell them
what they call mutual insurance. They
collect the premiums. but have no intention
of paying claims. The fake brokers are
generally clever enough to make no repre-.
sentations as to the value of the stock which
they sell and this makes 1t difficult to deal
with them on criminal charges. But they
usually are so anxious not to appear In
court that they will refund the money rather
than take any chances Of prosecution.
1--WE do a large amount of outside in
vestigation and our division makes no move
until we are sure of our ground. letter
to the persons whom we want generally
brings q response, but II they do not appear
after we send our Anal notice, we have the
authority to send officers Of the court to
| compel attendance.
Many Suits Prevented
when cases come to us from any Of the
numerous sources which send them, our first
| work is to prevent legal action If that be
possible. Besides the courts which have
mentioned we get cases from the Society for
Organizing Charities. Knights Of Columbus.
| Young Mems Christ1an Association, Juvenile
Aid. the Big Sisters, the Jewish Federation
1
1t is safe to say that we have prevented n
great many more legal actions than we have
| instituted.
| 1.-THE conciliation feature Is an important
| one in our division. For example, some
time ago q nurse employed In one of our
| hospitals came to us and said that her
brother, young. man, was in jail In
Nebraska, on a charge of selling stolen
automobile. There was no charge that he
had originally stolen the cur, but only that
he had sold 1t: Both parents were dead and
the sister, who was the boys only living
ties Of the hospital where she was employed
OF Nebraska and succeeded in getting the
boy paroled. He came to P6iladeiphia
where our Labor Department got him n
place as mechanic and he IL doing well.
1--WE have many cases In the Sinai,
Claims branch Of the work which have some
amusing features. One of the railroads run =
ming into Philadelphia hired 100 men after
the last big storm to go to another city on
its line and shovel snow. When thew vnt
back, the men found that they were TO he
paid onis for the actual time which tbev
had spent in shoveling the snow and NOT To-,
the full time when they left this city Intil
they returned, The whole 100 appes red din in
our court with their claim for cocn,emso. :.
tion. The investigation which ;Se made
brought out the fact that other ,oads r"n
ming into Philadelphia were III the hahit
OF paying men employed In similar circnm !.
stances from the time they left this city untII mi
lrvThs Representatives Of ths tailso,d w.r,