Lawyers
petitioning governments on behalf of pension claimants may be a
practice nearly as old as Western Civilization itself. In 500 BCE
the Laws of Solen in Athens provided disability benefits to the
"unfit." A disability decision could be challenged in
public debate before the legislature. Applicants for the benefits
hired rhetoricians to argue their case--the first recorded use of
claimants' attorneys.
Following the enactment of the Civil War Pension system a legal
specialty immediately sprang up of attorneys who would help the
applicants through the administrative process--for a percentage
of the benefit award.
In addition to the very elaborate business card of one such attorney,
we have a booklet on the pension program published by another attorney
as part of his promotion of his services, a flyer which another
attorney used to solicit business, and a newsletter which was used
to promote an array of veterans-related services offered by yet
another attorney. |
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