Solicitors and barristers (was Re: June's OT Board Dictionary Launched

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter Iggy wrote:
> PS: Since I can't find the letter where someone asked the real 
difference
> between a "solicitor" and a "barrister"... from what I understand, 
a
> solicitor is more like a paralegal... (someone who can help you 
deal with
> legal documents and official stuff, but isn't a "trial lawyer" and 
doesn't
> actually go to court)... and a barrister is more like an actual 
attorney who
> can go to trial for or against you.


Here's how the OED distinguishes them. I think the up-shot is that a 
solicitor has not been "called to the bar" and so cannot be an 
advocate in the superior courts of law (I think that's what we call 
the high court). Solicitor first:

One properly qualified and formally admitted to practise as a law-
agent in any court; formerly, one practising in a court of equity, 
as distinguished from an attorney.
  The rise of solicitors as a class of legal practitioners, and the 
gradual recognition and definition of their status, are illustrated 
by the first group of quotations.

Now barrister:

A student of the law, who, having been called to the bar, has the 
privilege of practising as advocate in the superior courts of law. 
The formal title is barrister-at-law; the equivalent designation in 
Scotland is advocate.
  The name originated in the ancient internal arrangements of the 
Inns of Court: see quot. 1545 infra, and BAR n. 24. But by 1600, it 
was currently associated with the bar of the courts of justice, at 
which utter-barristers had before that date secured the right to 
plead, formerly possessed only by sergeants and apprentices-at-law.

There, clear as mud.

Cheers,

Dumbledad.