Show SPECULATORS IN LAW Justice Baskin delivered an opinion the other day which is of interest to litigants and attorneys In this state He held that a contract between a client and his attorney by which the latter agreed to advance the necessary costs and wines fees for the prosecution prosecu-tion of the suit is contrary to public policy and chamsertous The definition of champerty is a bargain with a litigant to bear expenses of litigation in consideration of a share of the matter sued for Most states I have enacted laws against the practice and have provided penalties for their enforcement Utah has a statute prohibiting pro-hibiting common barratry which amounts to the same thing but the provision of the code is such and the practice is carried on in such a way that convictions are next to impossible Things have come to such a pass that the trade of damage lawyers needs to be rebuked from the bench I is unprofessional un-professional and tends to increase and promote litigation and our statutes do require that an attorney shall not encourage either the commencement or continuance ofan action or proceeding I proceed-ing from improper motives of selfin i terest i Actions based upon champertous I contracts ar a form of speculation for i the plaintiff as well as for the lawyer I Wljat else is it but champerty pure I and simple adjusting itself to modern I conditions I makes a tradesman out I of one who should be regarded as a l professional man I lowers the law in the estimation of the public and gives rise to a growing presumption against the honesty of the plaintiff in almost every damage suit This is an abuse of Justice that is in Its infancy in Utah In many of the I larger cities of the older states these vultures of the profession have agents attached to every ambulance guarding the door of every hospital hanging around the telephone at every Dolce headquarters ready to pounce upon the victims of the casualties which are constantly con-stantly happening I a man gets hurt In an elevator or a woman has her hand pinched in a car door or a child is run over by a trolly car these agents reach the spot before the surgeons do and begin to urge damage suit The vie Um or his relatives may plead poverty J > 7 and then the damage lawyer makes his dealA He goes nto partnership Mith the client advances the necessary costs and pockets the bulk o the judgment One year ago a attorney by the name of Samuel Evans Maires was disbarred I dis-barred at Philadelphia Judge Arnold who nronounced the judgment ex pressed nronounce the sentiments every honest man in the profession must feel when he sad Either way we look upon his dealing as a champertor barretor or dishonest partner we find no mitigation whatever no excuse for his conduct The cases brought to our attention have given positive proof of that wl hIs h-is frequently heard in ordinary conversation conver-sation that there are lawyers who make it a business to hunt up litigation and take cases upon speculation with the usual result quarrels with their clients based upon a dishonest and unfair division divi-sion of the moneys recovered No lawyer law-yer with a proper sense of the dignity of the profession as well as his own self respect a a man will stoop to such practices prac-tices as have been laid bare In ImcJ present pres-ent proceedings Not even death can keep these ghouls of society at bay their emissaries Invade the house of mourning they enter the hospitals no place is sacred sa-cred from their intrusion If any more such exist it is hoped that the board of cnsor of the law association will continue con-tinue their laudable efforts until the offenders of-fenders shall be discovered and driven out of the profession I The assistant or runner who hunts up 1 these cases is a nuisance which should be abated He participates In the spoils his share being covered up In the Items for investigating working up cases and doing detective work Perhaps these runners run-ners manufacture testimony for in at least one of the cases exposed before us the charge for witness fees I greater than the amount paid to the only witnesses nesses known to the plaintiff This abuse has grown with the practice prac-tice in police courts in some cities where shysters flock to fleece the wretched and where the machinery of the court is used in many ways to extort ex-tort fees for the nretendpd sprvipp of alleged lawyers and other officers of the court One of the greatest Injuries resulting from the trade of these legal speculators specu-lators is to reputable members of the profession and to honest clients For It must not be implied that reputable attorneys at-torneys never bring suits for damages I Is thus that many grave wrongs are righted and in prosecuting such actions for the poor and deserving the chivalry of the profession is shown But they do not sue on champertous agreements |