Courts: Philadelphia's Magisterial Mess

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> In 157,629 traffic cases heard by magistrates last year, the conviction rate was only 6.9%—a statistic lending support to one magistrate's story that his colleagues regard traffic cases as a lucrative business. The story also goes that Philadelphia's constables (who enforce court orders) pay kickbacks for the privilege of collecting illegal $4 fees from the recipient of each warning letter they send to scofflaws.

> Constables are also in cahoots with some magistrates to use the courts as a debt-collection agency. To help constables rake in commissions as high as 50%, for example, such magistrates issue arrest warrants for "civil debt"—a result-getter that has been illegal in Pennsylvania since 1842. As soon as he took office in 1961, Magistrate Harry C. Schwartz incorporated the Active Collection Agency with his wife as president and Constable Abraham Siegel as treasurer. Magistrate Schwartz openly welcomes A.C.A. cases—and shares his wife's 50% split of the profits.

Wary Legislators. As an interim reform, the Scranton administration last week pressed state legislators to raise magistrates' salaries, require new ones to be lawyers, cut the present number to 18, and drastically alter the case-assignment system to prevent collusion. Even that modest package is given scant chance of passage. As a troubled Scranton aide points out: "These men are probably the most powerful politicians in the state. They do favors for people every day, and state legislators are scared to death of them."