They are therefore optimists of the most pronounced type.

The lawyer has a two-fold temptation to advise favorably; the temptation to secure business if the client is willing to take the chances of suit, and the temptation to please the client by coinciding with his views.

But there is a duty that should be stronger than self-interest and the desire to please. To disregard the duty would be a most short-sighted and fatal policy. The client may be pleased by favorable advice at the time, but his anger against his adversary will not endure for long. When the possibility of defeat and heavy costs loom up before him, he will bitterly repent his rashness and will blame the lawyer for not advising against it.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE HEADSTRONG PERSISTENCE OF A CLIENT

The headstrong persistence of a client may be illustrated by the following: A and B fell out, as neighbors sometimes do. A fierce quarrel ensued, and A unjustly charged B with injuring a cow that had been found with a broken leg near the line between the pastures owned by the two men. A threatened to sue B for the value of the cow, which had to be killed in consequence of the injury, and B met the threat with defiance.

A's regular lawyer refused to bring suit, because

of insufficiency of evidence. Not satisfied to let the matter drop, A sought out another lawyer, who readily agreed to sue. After many expensive delays, the trial was held, and B proved by witnesses that the cow fell and broke her leg when jumping the fence into B's pasture. B won the case.

After A had paid the costs of suit and reluctantly given up a huge fee to the lawyer who had acted for him, he returned, like the prodigal, to his regular lawyer and besought him to defend him in a suit for malicious prosecution brought by his victorious neighbor.

EFFECT OF SUING UPON HOPELESS CASES

So it is unwise for the lawyer to take a case unless he has a reasonable chance of success. He has no right to his retainer or to fees in such a case unless the client, understanding all the probabilities, voluntarily assumes the risk. Even then the lawyer owes a duty to his own reputation as an attorney not to take cases in which he must inevitably fail. If it can be said of a lawyer that he frequently loses his cases, the public will not inquire what the causes are but will conclude that he is an incompetent practitioner.

"You should not be over-hasty, however, in deciding that a case is hopeless. It is a very important matter to your client and deserves your most careful attention. If, upon mature

consideration, there remains a doubt in your mind as to whether your client has a good case, that doubt should be resolved in his favor. There are instances on record where lawyers have won enduring laurels by winning cases, equitable and just in themselves, but so apparently hopeless that many other lawyers had previously declined to undertake them.

"Ordinarily a lawyer is over-confident as to the outcome of his case, but it sometimes happens that a jury are more liberal in their verdict than the plaintiff's attorney had dared hope. A case came under observation not long ago where the plaintiff's counsel had offered to settle for about three hundred dollars, and his offer was refused. Later a jury awarded the plaintiff two thousand dollars, and the court refused to set aside the verdict as excessive.

"But it should be said in passing that no lawyer ever won enduring laurels by successfully conducting an unjust or unequitable suit. He may be called upon to defend a guilty person who is in the toils of law, and it is his duty under such circumstances to see that his client's constitutional rights as to trial and defence are safeguarded, but that is a very different matter from actively aiding the questionable endeavors of a dishonest client in a civil suit." 1

1 Archer's" Law Office and Court Procedure," pages 14, 15.

In Hoffman's Resolutions we find the following statements as to a lawyer's duty in this particular. Resolution Eleven:

"If, after duly examining a case, I am persuaded that my client's claim or defence (as the case may be), cannot, or rather ought not to, be sustained, I will promptly advise him to abandon it. To press it further in such a case, with the hope of gleaning some advantage by an extorted compromise, would be lending myself to a dishonorable use of legal means in order to gain a portion of that, the whole of which I have reason to believe would be denied to him both by law and justice." Resolution Nineteen:

"Should my client be disposed to compromise, or to settle his claim, or defence, and especially if he be content with a verdict or judgment that has been rendered, or, having no opinion of his own, relies with confidence on mine, I will in all such cases greatly respect his wishes and real interests. The further prosecution, therefore, of the claim or defence (as the case may be), will be recommended by me only when, after mature deliberation, I am satisfied that the chances are decidedly in his favor; and I will never forget that the pride of professional opinion on my part, or the spirit of submission, or of controversy (as the case may be), on that of my client, may easily mislead the judgment of both, and cannot justify

me in sanctioning, and certainly not in recommending, the further prosecution of what ought to be regarded as a hopeless cause. To keep up the ball (as the phrase goes) at my client's expense, and to my own profit, must be dishonorable; and however willing my client may be to pursue a phantom, and to rely implicitly on my opinion, I will terminate the controversy as conscientiously for him as I would were the cause my own."

§ 36. UNJUST OR INEQUITABLE SUITS.

Dangerous as it is to the lawyer's reputation to bring suits hopeless in law but which have a moral basis to support them, it is infinitely more dangerous to bring suits that are unjust or inequitable in themselves. If a client wishes to extort money from a victim by trickery and fraud, the lawyer should not be a party to the attempt. He cannot excuse himself by any claim of professional obligation to do a client's bidding. Such obligation does not extend beyond legitimate and proper tasks. The public will condemn the lawyer long before he is aware that he has been found out.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF EFFECT UPON LAWYER'S

CAREER

A certain young lawyer who started out with a reputation for intellectual ability and oratorical attainments was once reproached by an acquaint