Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1914 — Many Lawsuits in Germany [ARTICLE]

Many Lawsuits in Germany

Nearly 6,000,000 Cases Fought Out In the Courts of the Country Every Year. , Berlin.—Nearly 6,000,000 lawsuits are fought out in the German courts yearly. This number does not include criminal cases, the myriad of proceedings to recover a penalty, nor the quasicriminal actions brought for Insult, etc. The figures mean, roughly, one lawsuit for every eleventh person In the empire, counting women and children, and since each suit involves at least two persons, the proportion is much greater, even allow-, ing for the fact that many persons are chronic litigants, conducting a number of lawsaits at the same time. These facts are made the basis for an article in a current German publication by a Dortmund Jurist. He refers to the situation as a “lawsuit plague,” and says it demands more victims yearly than does tuberculosis. The cost, both in time and money is enormous. A case which goes to the imperial supreme court requires at least three and one-half years for final disposal. Costs in two courts in a suit for an object valued at not more than sl2 amount to S2O; for an object worth up to $l2O, the cost is sll6. Germans pay to lawyers each year $7,500,000 In actions on account, Involving $12,590,000, In cases where the debt is not denied. In the so-called collegial courts, that is, courts presided over by two or more judges and corresponding roughly to American courts of record, parties to the suit may not represent themselves, but are compelled to engage attorneys. This is true even in the case of litigant attorneys themselves. The author of the article In question cites a case which is, he declares, by no means unusual. One farmer sued another to compel, the return of a saw. The trial court decided In favor of the plaintiff, and the case was appealed. Ib the meantime the saw was lost. The putative owner thereupon brought action to recover Its value. The parties being unable to agree an expert witness was called, who testified that the saw was worth 1$ cents. The process lasted three years and the costs amounted to more than $26. The writer says ft should be impossible to set such ponderous machinery in motion for trlcial cases, and commenting on this tendency in the German people says: "The German Michael will sue the shirt off his. back In order to obtain a decree in black jfod white in tbe king’s' name, setting forth theoretical rights.”