Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1881 — Fraudulent Divorce Certificates. [ARTICLE]

Fraudulent Divorce Certificates.

People who get divorced through New York lawyers who advertise the divorce business as a specialty should be careful not to marry again until they are certain all is right. Other evidence than the statements of the unscrupulous attorneys is necessary. A New Yorker who supposed himself divorced in this way, ostensibly through a Pittsburg court, found to his disgust that the names of officials who have no existence had been affixed to the apparently legal certificate. Some months ago a New York reporter visited one of the divorce lawyers, and after paying him certain fees in due time received what purported to be the legal attestation of his separation from his wife. As he had never been married, the value of the process through which he had passed can very easily be conceived. There is no doubt that many of the applicants to these shysters are as bad as their counsel, but this does not render the latter any less a nuisance. Legislation .is apparently needed in several States to check this nefarious practice, and it should be forthcoming. —Cincinnati Gazette.