Bromleyisms: Automobiles

Mr. Butch declared that my website's audience needs valuable advice concerning their legal rights, and I ought, thereby, post a link to his website. I'm guessing that Mr. (or is that Ms.?) Butch didn't read the article. Had he, he'd have come out massaging sore legal bones from the thrashing therein of the hysteria industry of 1902. The article is not sympathetic to the cause of the victim. And, it's from 1902. I believe that the statute of limitations has run its course on the events of 104 years ago.

Still, the idea of chasing those old ambulances seemed like fun, so I got to browsing through the early newspapers for Mr. Butch's esteemed predecessors. The first time the phrase "ambulance chaser" appears in the New York Times database is 1899, in an obituary of some attorney, Christopher Fine. His most famous case involved a corrupt judge who committed suicide while under investigation for connections to the Tweed Ring. The judge just happened to be a partner in Fine's law firm. Fine had nothing to do with justice or its violation, it seems, but he did manage to concoct an lovely theory of "alienation" that the court agreed invalidated the distressed Judge's last-minute will. It was a little matter of 600,000 bucks that, I guess, the suicidal judge wanted to deny his heirs. With courtroom flair and a "leonine countenance," Fine got the money. Not exactly a public service, but everyone's entitled to legal representation, right Mr. Butch? Now, here's where we really learn about Mr. Fine:

That was in 1899. As with the following few years' results for "ambulance chaser," the targeted "corporations" were mostly trolleys and railroads, which, it would seem from the headlines, were attacked by shysters and their attorneys as much as they truly victimized innocents. The automobile wasn't attached to "ambulance chasers" until March 10, 1906, at which point we learn this from the editors of the New York Times:

So, dear victims of 1902, Mr. Butch is ready and awaiting at your service in full "barratry and champerty and maintenance." But be careful, for if you haven't enough complaint your might just get caught at the game, as did this lovely little heister of 1910

"The Woman, the Banana Peel, and the Law Suits"

(click on image for larger view)

Sorry, Mr. Butch: no links to help your shilling and barratry and champerty and maintenance. But thanks, anyway, for without you I'd never have come across those marvelous words from the days of real editorial writing.

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