Court Opinion

ID: 9860898
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:35:32.735152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:26:51.115453
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Schaeeer, dissenting: Guilt is admitted in this case, and the only question is the discipline to be imposed. The committee on grievances of the Illinois State Bar Association recommended disbarment. The Board of Governors of the Association recommended suspension for 5 years. Mr. Justice Davis and I feel that the censure that this court now imposes is inadequate. What the opinion of the court euphemistically-describes as “one episode of transgression” was actually a deliberate course of solicitation that lasted over three years. During that period respondent collected more than $41,000 in fees in cases that were solicited by the runner he hired. This profitable “episode” continued until the younger lawyers of the area sought an injunction tO' restrain his activities. That respondent did not “overreach” his clients, or defraud them, does not seem to us particularly relevant. He overreached the other members of the bar to a degree that forced upon them the disagreeable job of bringing suit to put a stop to his activities. Censure misses the mark in a case like this one. Respondent deliberately and systematically solicited business to make money. He succeeded. If we assume that censure will keep him from resuming operations, there are others who might be quite willing to choose a certain and substantial present profit against the risk that if their activities are discovered the consequence will be a formal censure buried in the reports of this court. Mr. Justice Davis concurs in this dissent. Mr. Justice Bristow, specially concurring with the majority opinion, on consideration of a petition for rehearing : The petition for rehearing filed by our commissioners wherein it is stated that the majority opinion herein “shocks the conscience of the Bar of the State of Illinois” bestirs the necessary enterprise required to put a few observations in writing. I have caused to be canvassed all of the disciplinary cases in all States awering a period of the last two years. I have found not one case involving simple solicitation, unaccompanied by venality or moral turpitude, under circumstances comparable to those appearing in this record, where the punishment has exceeded censure. The case that heads the list of authorities relied upon by the Bar Association is In re Veach, 1 Ill.2d 264. Veach, who was suspended for five years, was not only a menace to the bar, but to the public generally. He was a chaser himself, pursuing injured victims and wresting from them a contract of employment almost before they had regained consciousness. He had no office, was not a trial lawyer, settled his cases in package lots for much less than their real value, thus betraying a client rather than representing him. When his case was heard not a single lawyer in his area testified in his behalf. The second case relied upon is People ex rel. Chicago Bar Association v. Ashton, 347 Ill. 570. Therein the respondent Ashton was suspended for one year, not because of solicitation alone, but because of the use of fraudulent letters. Then, there is cited Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Andrews, 338 Ill. App. 552. The respondent therein was so notoriously involved in “ambulance chasing” on such a huge scale that he finally surrendered, requesting that his name be stricken from the roll of Illinois attorneys. In the case of State ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Association v. Hatcher, 209 P.2d 873 (1949), the offender was suspended for three years. He was associated with two others. The three had runners all over the State of Oklahoma, ambulance drivers, cab drivers, coroners, doctors, internes and hospitals. In a period of a few years they processed several thousand workmen’s compensation and personal injury cases. I am amazed that we should be asked to reconsider our opinion and that reliance for such request be predicated upon the foregoing authorities. In the instant case respondent was admittedly guilty of a series of solicitations. The personal injury cases of Bast St. Louis were being channelled by “ambulance chasers” into the offices of St. Louis attorneys. The respondent hired one of the better solicitors, Albert Toler, and acquired some of the business that otherwise would have gone across the river. The more aggravated cases of solicitation that appear in our reports invariably involve fee splitting, the procurer receiving a substantial percentage of the recovery. The record in this case shows that with the exception of two occasions, Toler received only his regular monthly salary, and that the respondent never split fees with Toler. The commissioners so found. I am deeply impressed with the unanimity with which the members of the East St. Louis Bar Association testified on behalf of the respondent’s integrity, and the fidelity and effectiveness with which he handled the business of his clients. Also of significance is the fact that two of the finest lawyers in that area appeared in our court, without compensation, and with feeling and eloquence spoke in behalf of the respondent. The commissioners, nevertheless, recommended that this person be given the same punishment as Veach. This would be tantamount to a destruction of respondent’s professional life. In cases in which professional impropriety not importing venality or moral turpitude, such as solicitation, is proved, or, as in this case, admitted, we do not have to determine the facts but must appraise the degree of the transgression against canons of ethics. The solicitation of law business, whether accomplished directly by the lawyer himself or through intermediaries, is proscribed by the canons of all bar associations. Bar associations do their duty when their members bring instances of such offenses to the attention of the courts. In the instant case, younger members of the East St. Louis Bar Association, acting in uncompensated devotion to the legal profession, have pressed the charges against respondent and recommended that he be suspended for a period of five years. Nevertheless the following considerations are important. The inhibition against the unprofessional solicitation of lawyers’ business arose in England and the early days of this country when almost all litigation was either between members of a family, neighbors, friends, close business associates, master and servant when a servant was a part of the household, or other persons united in intimate association. Incidentally, it should be noted that the principle of professional ethics that inhibited solicitation evolved as a part of a policy that so strongly deterred any attempt to “stir up litigation” as to forbid contingent fees in any kind of case. Such fees are still forbidden in England but are approved in every State of the Union. Today insurance companies, railroads, airlines and other industries in whose operation some people are certain to be maimed or killed have highly organized mechanisms of defense. Claim agents, many of whom are not lawyers, do their simple duty when they try by fair means to obtain the lowest possible settlement for injured plaintiffs. Instances in which claim agents resort to unfair means range from cases in which the agent exerts excessive zeal to cases of shocking fraud. Even the most scrupulous claim agent cannot fairly represent both claimant and defendant. In any event, claim agents cannot hope to achieve advancement by affecting liberal settlements with claimants. On the other side we find some overzealous “chasers,” equipped with newspaper clippings, photostats of large settlement checks and other documentary evidence indicating that the lawyer they are representing is a “superman” never satisfied with anything short of six figures. It is a veritable scramble between the claim agent and the “chaser” to see which one can reach an injured claimant first. The net result of a timely arrival of the solicitor is that the claimant will eventually receive an amount that a court and jury deems adequate and just. This presupposes that the case is placed in the hands of a lawyer of proven ability and unquestioned fidelity. The uncontradicted proof in this record demonstrates that respondent was such a person. Apart from the good, the only tangible harm that evolved from the solicitation in the instant case is that suffered by the St. Louis barrister who had a portion of his business sidetracked. I am not overlooking the impact of this ugly practice of our fine profession. Nevertheless, solicitation of personal injury cases is the natural reflex or defensive response to the unfair methods of claim adjusters, just as naturally as the human organism elaborates its own antibodies to combat disease. Nor is it amiss to note that opulent lawyers and large law firms who do not employ "runners” to attract business do spend large sums of money for memberships in country clubs, entertainment in fashionable surroundings and other similar amenities of social intercourse. That the primary purpose of these expenditures is the attraction of law business and not hospitality is attested by the fact that such lawyers regularly claim and the Internal Revenue Department regularly allows deductions for these expenditures as “business” and not “personal” expenses. I do not disapprove of this practice. It is not only a dignified method of solicitation that is generally recognized, but it has the unique advantage of having the United States government pay a substantial portion of its cost. Of course, there is a difference in the two forms of solicitation. It seems unrealistic to say that there is such a spread between the two forms that one deserves sanction and the other professional interment. While we are considering the sins of our profession, we should not fail to pay our respects to the most reprehensible of all, namely the lawyer who finds it convenient to simulate mourning and solicitude in the presence of a bereaved family when an estate is-to be settled. Then there is the lawyer who contributes money in political campaigns that he might receive the appointment as city attorney or perhaps assistant State’s Attorney. Is this an overreaching of the other lawyers in this area? For a quarter of a century Saul E. Cohn and his wife have enjoyed an unblemished reputation in East St. Louis for being good people. These proceedings necessarily have brought to them and their two children humiliation and distress. This court’s judgment of censure is a real, substantial and serious punishment for any self-respecting lawyer. It constitutes a punishment that all members of the bar worthy of the name of lawyer would avoid. Judge Cardozo, while a member of the Court of Appeals of New York, in the case of People ex rel. Karlin v. Culkin, 248 N.Y. 465, 162 N.E. 487, 60 A.L.R. 851 (1928), involving the investigation of a lawyer’s conduct, had this to say: “The argument is pressed that, in conceding to the court a power of inquisition, we put into its hands a weapon whereby the fair fame of a lawyer, however innocent of wrong, is at the mercy of the tongue of ignorance or malice. Reputation in such a calling is a plant of tender growth, and its bloom, once lost, is not easily restored. The mere summons to appear at such a hearing and make report as to one’s conduct may become a slur and a reproach.” Reprimand and censure have been found to be effective vehicles of punishment in the disciplinary proceedings in the U. S. Army. If this were a criminal proceeding and the respondent should request probation, under the circumstances of this case, it is inconceivable that any court would refuse. It is my hope that these reflections may afford some relief to the authors of the petition for rehearing who asserted that the determination implicit in the majority opinion produced shock. It is to be noted that the Junior Bar Association of East St. Louis refused to join in the petition for rehearing. With these observations I concur in the judgment of censure.