Perjury for Pay

Willis P. King was a doctor working for an American railroad company in the late 1800s - he examined patients who had sued for compensation due to injury, finding many fabricated claims in order to gain money.

Dr. King first confronts the charge of longtime bias towards his employer, or that his employer might have paid him to author this book. Prior to assuming the position of examining physician at the railroad firm, King was a trusted family doctor with a strong reputation for ethical practice and rigor. He contrasts his record to that of litigants, many of whom coached their friends or relatives to lie in court in pursuit of financial gain.

Several cases reported on by King were notorious at the time; examples including apparently crippled defendants who, upon gaining a large cash settlement, discard their crutches and limb braces within weeks of receiving the money. Dr. King himself reports resisting anger and confrontation when seeing such individuals walking in public, sometimes mere streets away from the courthouse that delivered their favorable verdicts.

Though this work is defined by the strong moral convictions of the author, certain cases carry cause for humor. The testimony of certain witnesses, and the ridiculousness of certain claims, plus the successes of the author in mitigating the damage done to the railway company, give cause for cheer in what is overall a catalogue of human greed, dishonesty and deceit.