WHAT LAW COSTS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 167, 20 April 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHAT LAW COSTS.

The statement made the other day that the two chief Law Officers of the Crown take between them nearly £30,000 in salaries and fees shows, says an English paper, why lawyers are so keen on entering Parliament. Even outside Westminster Hall big fees soon mount up to thousands of pounds. The money expended in one case tried by the late Lord St. Heliers is said to have totalled nearly £IO,OOO. On the respondent's side alone counsel's fees were 225 guineas daily, and as the case lasted fifteen days, these expenses amounted to 3,375 guineas. Earl Russells expenses in connection with the litigation arising out of his first marriage amounted to the almost appalling sum of £30,000. Italy seems to hold the record for expensive law. Signor Antona Traversa, a merchant of Milan, died in 1900, leaving behind him a fortune of £600,000 and a will which displeased certain of his heirs. They disputed it, and the more they did so the more heirs came to the fore. Eventually when the case was called for trial, no fewer than 105 lawyers were found to have been briefed to represent various litigants. So great were their expenses that when all was settled £400,000 was divided among them in fees, while the heirs had to bo content with the remaining £200,000. The amount which that extraordinary criminal society, the Mafia, has cost the Italian Oovernnient in law can hardly be calculated. It may be reineniUered that so long ago as 1893 an ex-Deputy and several other influential men were arrested for the murder of Signor ,Noto-Carlato, ex-Mayor of Palermo. The Mafia managed to prevent the hist trial taking place until 1890. Then they stole a number of documents, so that it was only in September 1901 that the prosecution began in earnest. It lasted till the following May, and over 2,000 witnesses were examined. After all the prisoner was acquitted, while the trial cost the Government £BO,OOO. The Molineux murder case, in which Roland Molineux was, after two trials, eventually acquitted of murdering a man by sending him poison by post, was an extremely costly business for the State of New York. The cost to the county the case was tried in was £51,000, while the total cost was over £IOO,OOO. Fees paid to experts 'n handwriting were over £3,000.

In New South Wales law costs wouia seem to b 0 more iniquitously high than in England. A recent example was an administration case, in which a certain solicitor appeared for the plaintiffs, who were nine in number, and all under age. This gentleman was asked to act for live of the defendants, but declined. However, he arranged with five different firms of solicitors to take up their cases, and allow him a percentage of the costs. These camo to £5,068, and completely swallowed the whole estate. The Chief Judge in Equity ordered the refunding of abou £I,OOO, and the Full Court of Now South Wales fined the solicitor £SO. A few years ago a couple of farmers got to loggerheads over a fence which one of them had erected between two fields. Each insisted that it was on Ins land, and the case was taken to Court. In the first action the fence builder lost, and he took it to the Court of Appeal. Eventually it finished just before it got to the House of Lords. By that time both farmers had been sold up to pay the lawyer's fees. One cannot blame the legal fraternity for making money when opportunity offers, but the wise men are those who settle their disputes out of Court.