Griggs v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.

If the opinion properly states the law, then I think the next legislature should enact a new law, as the «legislature of 1917 considered doing. The opinion in effect holds that the parties to a lawsuit cannot settle their controversy without the consent of their attorneys — a rule never before announced, so far as I know, by any court.

It would not be surprising if we lawyers, who have ourselves received contingent fees, should be biased in favor of a practice absolutely forbidden at the common law. At common law, settlements were always encouraged by the courts. Lawyers were regarded as…