Solicitor

A person whose business is to be employed in the care and management of suits depending in courts of chancery. Formerly, in England, they corresponded to attorneys in common law practice. By the Judicature Act, 1873, all solicitors, attorneys and proctors are to be called solicitors of the supreme court. They are stringently regulated by various acts. They are required to pass an entrance examination before the Law Society, which hears applications to strike them off the roll. A solicitor must be a British subject, who has served as a clerk to a practicing solicitor under binding articles from three to five years, passed various examinations and entered on the roll of solicitors by the Law Society. But a barrister of not less than five years standing may have himself disbarred and become a solicitor without examination except the final examination. After his name is on the roll, he must annually take out a certificate duly stamped. The certificate of a country solicitor does not enable him to practice in town; hence nearly every country solicitor employs a London solicitor as his town agent. In the High Court of Justice, in the Court of Appeal and in the House of Lords, and before the Judicial Committee of Privy Council, a barrister must be employed, as well as a solicitor; but a solicitor can plead before justices or any magistrate, sheriff's court, a coroner, revising barrister, ecclesiastical courts, in every county court, etc., courts of petty sessions, and at chambers in the High Court, but not in the mayor's court of London, and in the court of quarter sessions only for those counties for which no bar regularly attends. No person who is not a solicitor can act as one or sue out any proceeding or defend any action. A solicitor has very extensive authority, especially in litigious matters, but in other matters is more restricted. His charges are fixed by law. He must first deliver a bill of costs and ordinarily wait a full calendar month before he can bring suit for it. A solicitor may not receive anything beyond his regular charges; [1895] 2 Q. B. 679. Any gift would be presumed to be the result of undue influence, but the presumption may be rebutted. By recent acts solicitors are permitted to act as proctors in all ecclesiastical courts, and proctors are not now a separate profession; Odgers, C. L. 1431.