It follows, then that successful endeavours to make the administration of justice prompt, complete, and economical, will bring pure benefit; or if not pure benefit, still, an immense surplus of benefit. That which the philanthropist and the political reformer leave almost unthought of as an object to be laboured for, is that which, above all other objects, is worthy of their labour. Attracted as their attention is by special evils to be cured, they think little of the universally-diffused evils which the non-enforcement of equity entails. Nor do they see that many of the beneficial changes which they fail to achieve by direct measures would be achieved indirectly were easy remedies for all injustices within the reach of every citizen. Let us consider the matter under its several aspects – some familiar, some unfamiliar.
On the individual sufferings entailed by the uncertainty and costliness of law, it is needless to dwell. Every family can furnish one or more histories of lawsuits by which relatives seeking justice have been impoverished. When I have repeated the remark lately made to me by a judge, in agreement with another judge he quoted, that he often wished he could charge the costs of the suits brought before him, on the lawyers who conducted them – when I have conveyed the feeling of a solicitor expressed to me but yesterday, that however strong his case might be, he would rather toss-up with his antagonist which should yield than go into court; I have said enough to remind all how vicious is the judicial system under which we live, and how often ruin rather than restitution comes to those who seek its aid when wronged. Usually, indeed, it is thought that these evils which, extreme as they are, custom reconciles us to, are evils felt only by the classes carrying on business and by those who possess property. Though in rural districts there frequently occur such aggressions on labourers as those which take away rights of common – though by magistrates belonging to the upper ranks, the punishments inflicted for offences committed by those belonging to the lower ranks are often utterly disproportioned – though the assault which, in default of money, brings imprisonment on the poor man, brings on the rich man only a fine easily paid; yet the silence concerning law-reform at working-class meetings, and the coldness with which the topic is received if introduced, imply the current belief that a better administration of justice is a matter which touches the few rather than the many. But besides the ways in which they individually suffer from time to time from injustices for which no remedy is to be had, the people at large suffer universally in diffused ways.
For maladministration of justice raises, very considerably, the cost of living for all. Payments to lawyers form one of the current expenses of business in general. Manufacturers and merchants and traders have to take account of these items in their outlays, and average extra profits on their transactions have to be made to meet these items. Further, there are had debts – debts which are crossed off from ledgers because, even if recoverable at all their amounts would probably be exceeded by the costs of recovering them; and there are also occasional losses by bankruptcies, made needlessly great by the involved legal process of liquidation. These, too, are items of expenditure which have to be met by larger profits on the commodities sold. Moreover, the rise of prices necessitated in these several ways is cumulative. The producer has to charge extra to the wholesale distributor; the wholesale distributor must add to this extra charge a further extra charge to the retail distributor; and the retail distributor must do the like to the consumer. Nor after observing that the effect is thus triplicated shall we fully appreciate the total rise caused. For on recalling the truth that every tax on a commodity increases its price by a greater amount than the amount imposed, because of the extra capital employed and business transacted, we must infer that similarly, the loss which maladministration of justice entails on the producer, the wholesale dealer, and the retailer, raises each of their prices by a greater amount than is directly needed to meet it: all three of these enhancements eventually coming on the consumer.