During the period since October 1, 1931, the Legal Aid Bureau of the Law School has handled over 500 cases in the courts for people unable to secure the services of a professional attorney, A. L. Schamalholz 2L, announced yesterday.

Working in a low-ceilinged 10 by 18 foot room on the second floor of Garrett House, 32 embryo lawyers have assembled their cases and interviewed twice as many clients as they did last year, which was also a record year. Schmalholz attributes this flood of patronage to the depression, which has prevented even normally prosperous a people from seeking the services of a professional barrister.

One fourth of the cases handled by the Bureau are student cases. Automobile accidents are the chief source of student business, although landlord and tenant cases as well as unpaid bills to merchants constitute a large number of cases. One student attempted to use a tutoring bureau for not refunding his money after he had failed an examination for which the bureau had tutored him. All sensible cases, regardless of the difficulty, are handled by the Bureau, with remarkably few losses. The only criminal cases handled are those in which students are involved in minor charges. Domestic relations cases where the Domestic relations cases where the Cambridge Welfare Union has advised that an adjustment would be socially desirable, are frequently tried.

Landlord and tenant cases provide the principal source of outside work. Although many trivial and amusing cases come to the attention of the Bureau, much valuable service has also been rendered. In the case of a man who was penniless and had all his property taken away from him by his landlady, the Bureau took the case and got a decision from the court to the effect that a boarding house must house at least five members not related to the proprietor. As a result all the property was returned to the rightful owner.

Many people suffering from paranoia, and foolish delusions of persecution frequently appeal to the students. Women appear who think they have a claim against every one. When the claim against every one. When the Bureau found no merit in the case of a woman sueding for an infringement of copyright, the woman tried to sue the Bureau for stealing a poem of her's entitled "Come, Across, Come, Come." Another case of a clergyman who imagined he had been imprisoned in an asylum because he was going to write a book condemning a higher ecclesiastic also reached the Bureau.

A student helped the defendant in an interesting case in an East Boston court for assault and battery. The complainant who called herself "Minnie the Squaw", was playing whist with the defendant when she mentioned that the defendant's husband had "been hanging around her lately." The defendant denied this vigorously. A "brawl" ensued in which the furniture was damaged and glasses broken. The Bureau won the case for the defendant.

The annual dinner which usually closes the work of the Legal Aid Bureau will be held this year at the University Club, Boston, Wednesday evening, April 6, at 7.30 o'clock. The Bureau will continue to function under the present system until June 1, when the other members of the law school will take up the work for the summer both at 22 Gannett House and at the Central Square Branch. An increased use of the Bureau has caused this change.