READY FOR THE PLAINTIFF

Report repeated from the April 15th bulletin, when scheduled for earlier publication, as follows: ""Robert Wallace wrote a book called Life and Limb (see report p. 686 last fall) which was Belli's story as a personal injury lawyer. Now Melvin Belli tells his own story -- and at the same time makes a dramatic plea for personal injury law as such. This is fascinating reading for the layman who is rapidly convinced that the day may come when he may be the victim of a ""tort""; and for the budding lawyer, whose study of torts has proved the biggest hurdle in his legal training, this should be a bonanza. For here point upon point is illustrated by cases out of Melvin Belli's extraordinary career. Victims of bankrupting catastrophe, physical, mental, economic, are the stuff of which his cases are made and the book is crammed with their stories. In the course of the incidents the layman gets background data on kinds of cases; value -- and limitations -- of insurance company operation; variety of suits, workman's compensation cased involving common carriers; statute of limitations; slander and libel; problems of delays in justice; juries their selection and handling; the presentation of the case and the summing up, and so on. It is for most of us a different world. Melvin Belli makes one realize the importance of looking behind the scenes.