THE ABUSE OF PERSONAL INJURY LITIGATION after trial, all plaintiffs and witnesses who are clearly guilty of it. Prosecutions for conspiracy to defraud are also most valuable — especially in their effect upon a certain class of foreigners — and when well adver tised in the newspapers I have known such prosecutions to have the effect of greatly reducing the number of fraudulent claims subsequently made. 6. It is my belief that open perjury is comparatively rare as compared with an intelligent exaggeration of crucial facts. I have known of cases where attorneys have instructed their clients as to what they needed to prove in order to create a case, and then sent them out to procure witnesses who could be trained to twist the real facts of an occurrence into the shape desired. The most effective remedy for offenses of this class is professional ostracism of attor neys guilty of them and proceedings for disbarment in cases where clear proof can be obtained. The disbarment of a notorious legal character of this class, which occurred in Philadelphia several years since, had a most salutary effect in this regard. 7. The total amount of unjust verdicts rendered in this class of litigation can be greatly reduced through urging upon the courts the pursuit of a liberal policy in holding plaintiffs to a strict measure of proof at the trial, in charging strongly in favor of defendants in clear cases, in assum ing a large measure of responsibility in entering nonsuits or otherwise terminating unjust cases by deciding them on proposi tions of law rather than of fact, and in setting aside or cutting down unreasonable verdicts when rendered. The recent tendency of our courts to withhold from the jury issues and testimony which involve a clear violation
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of mathematical or mechanial laws is an illustration of a tendency in the righl direc tion. Another illustration is the growing disposition to rule out medical and other evidence of what is "barely possible" as con trasted with what is "reasonably probable." 8. It would be a great aid toward reform ing abuses in personal injury litigation if a better class of jurors could be empanelled to try these cases. A jury composed of men of the professional class might not be desirable, but on the other hand justice would be greatly forwarded if more jurors could be drawn from the class of men who are in active business for themselves as small traders or otherwise. The unprincir pled political rounder rewarded by appoint ment to jury service through the influence of a petty boss, the ignorant laborer, and the prejudiced mechanic should all be ex cluded. It is my belief that if jurors are intelligently selected, the jury system is an admirable method of determining personal injury as well as all other cases. In Phila delphia there exists a fairly satisfactory method of obtaining a good jury, and both my observation and experience have con firmed my belief in the general efficacy of the jury system when properly conducted. In at least eighty per cent of the personal injury cases in which I have been engaged I have personally agreed with the verdicts rendered, and I have rarely seen a jury fail to find a verdict for the defendant in this class of litigation where the evidence clearly demanded it. If the average quality of our juries could be still further improved, as above suggested, the erroneous results reached in many of the remaining twenty per cent of trials could probably be eliminated. PHILADELPHIA, PA., March, 1906.
