Law -- England; Poor -- England; Poor laws -- England; Working class -- England
Certain it is that the poor have a notion, in which there is doubtless
some truth, that the fact that the other side had a better and more
expensive counsellor gave them a greater chance in the legal lottery. The
side that can put Carson on to bowl at one end and F. E. Smith at the
other must start at a better price than the side which has to rely on an
unknown amateur in the back row. Of course, A. N. Other may take some
wickets, but the public have a very business-like belief that money talks,
and that the verdict of the jury, like most of the verdicts in life, will
turn out to be on the side which can put in the field the most expensive
team.
Certainly I can say without hesitation that working men would never have
got their due from the Workmen's Compensation Acts if each particular poor
workman had had to fight for his rights at his own expense. It is to the
trade unions and their co-operative litigation that the thanks of the
workmen are due for preserving their rights under the Act.
Mr. Lysons was a Pendleton collier, and had only worked for a few days
when he received an injury. This happened in 1901, and at that time the
old Act said that no compensation could be recovered until a man had been
off work for two weeks. It was argued before me that this being so, unless
a man was employed for more than fourteen days he could not come within
the Act at all. The argument did not appeal to me, but it did to the Court
of Appeal, and later on again it did not to the House of Lords. So the man
got his money.
But the point of the case is that had not the union come forward to take
his case to the House of Lords, Lysons would have lost his compensation,
and the Act of Parliament would have been construed to limit the rights of
the poor for all time.
This particular case cost the union six hundred pounds to fight, and the
point in dispute was whether the injured man was, or was not, to receive
six shillings a week for five weeks. Several cases have run the same
course. The Act is obscurely drafted and capable of many interpretations.
Some of these that still stand on the books remain precedents only because
the workman has not money enough to carry the case higher and has no union
behind him.
And, though in the first instance a workman might often make shift to
state his case in the County Court himself and rely on his own advocacy as
to the facts and the judge's knowledge of the law, it is absurd to suppose
he could argue a legal point in the Court of Appeal or House of Lords
without assistance. Unless a trade union is ready to take up the case, the
only hope of a man getting his rights is through the aid of a speculative
solicitor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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