WILY TOUTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 76, 30 March 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

WILY TOUTS.

"CORPSE HUNTING." SCANDAL IN ENGI/AND. UNSCRUPULOUS SOLICITORS. Combined effort by High Court and Couuty Court judges, the Bar Council and the English Law Society, is to be made to stamp out the degrading practice described by a County Court judge at llford recently as "corpse hunting." Judges have frequently referred to it from the Bench, and certain steps have been taken to suppress it.

Little success has been achieved, however, in the direction of curtailing the activities of those responsible for the practice, which is now so widespread as to constitute, apart from other considerations, a menace to justice. Immediately an accident happens 011 the road, necessitating the removal of the injured person to hospital, a "tout" is on the spot. The unfortunate victim, or, in case of death, his representative, is told of big compensation to be obtained "if the case is handled by experts like ourselves." A letter of "instructions" is signed and handed to the tout, together with another document—both now in printed form, so large is the business done—authorising "my solicitor" to deduct from any damages ten per cent ly way of commission, "plus costs." Some time ago the Law Society, with a view to checking the practice, supplied hospitals with lists of responsible solicitors with whom injured persons might communicate, and the hospitals have taken 6teps to prevent unauthorised, persons getting into touch with the patients. Such, however, are the wiles of the touts that this precaution has been of little avail. On the pretence of being related to the injured person, or by' producing a forged document, the touts manage to get into a ward to see the road victim. Refined Blackmail. During the last year or two the congestion in both High Courts and County Courts has been a matter of great concern to the authorities, who have found it largely due to the ever-growing claims for damages arising out of street accidents. Many of these actions ought never to be brought, and are taken by "speculative" solicitors without any regard to the merits of the claim. Quite recently in a London court judge and jury were engaged for several hours over one such claim, and after the jury had found for the defendant, following severe strictures by the judge 011 the character of the claim, counsel for defendant mentioned that the plaintiff had been heavily fined for an offence leading up to the events for which he sued for damages.

If .the activities of these touts and the solicitors who employ them were confined to the presentation of claims on which commission lias 'to be paid in case of success, the matter would be serious enough, but those who have knowledge of the conduct of these persons have discovered that it has a much more sinister side. It is nothing short of blackmail so far as the prospective defendant is concerned, and extortion from the injured. Men against whom improper claims are made pay up rather than face proceedings, and in a large number of instances insurance companies pay a modest sum instead of contesting claims. Moreover, even if an action is successful in the Courts, the 6tim that reaches the hapless yictim is negligible, for the unscrupulous solicitors retain far more than the agreed commission, and in many cases also the "speculation" is on the part of the plaintiff only.

The wily tout, wherever he can, asks for a "deposit" to start the hall rolling, and as large an amount as possible is extracted. Sometimes this means borrowing or pawning, and often the tout introduces the injured person to an "old friend," who turns out to be a moneylender. If the action succeeds, the monevlander shares the spoils; if it fails, he pursues the victim relentlessly.

It not infrequently happens that, no damages being awarded, the person injured not only suffers the consequences of his injury in physical pain, but finds himself in financial difficulties. And when damages are recovered, the vultures who have charge of them part with very little to the person for whom they are intended.