Excerpt from Board of Local Improvements: City of Chicago

The City is opposed in court in these proceedings by several hundred groups of attorneys and experts of the greatest skill. The City is therefore obliged, in forming its organization, to secure the services of the ablest men it can procure. This necessarily entails great expense, which has been the subject of much criticism by those who have not analyzed the situation which makes such organizations necessary. The outlays hitherto incurred by this work have so far been abundantly justified by the results procured. In one branch of the Michigan Avenue case, relating to the condemnation of a part of the Kirk Soap factory, the claim of the Kirk Company was for After thirteen weeks of trial before a jury in the County Court, the verdict was This was subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court. Thus the City in this one case saved by the skill of its organization of experts.

In the same Michigan Avenue improvement 8 large tract of factory and warehouse property owned by the Chicago Dock Canal Company was assessed for benefits from the Michigan Avenue improvement. The assessment was strenuously contested by the Dock Company, which claimed that there would be no benefits whatever to their property from the improvement and that the assessment should be entirely canceled. The Court, after an able presentation of its case by the City's counsel and expert witnesses, sustained the entire assessment, and this likewise was affirmed by the Supreme Court, saving to the City in this case the full amount of the assessment of as the result of the skill of its experts.

In spite of attacks, which have been made on the fees of these experts as excessive, I am convinced that they have saved the City many times the cost of their services, and that no others equally good can be secured for a less amount of money. As long as the City continues to be opposed in these cases by experts of outstanding ability, it considers that duty requires it to maintain an Organization which can win its cases.

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