Attorney General of England and Wales

“ And where any Person duly admitted a Solicitor in the Court of Chancery or Exchequer at Westminster, or in either of the Courts of the Great Sessions in Wales, or of the Duchy of Lancaster, or of the Counties Palatine of Chester, Lancaster, and Durham, shall be also admitted to act as a Solicitor in any other of the said Courts, or in any inferior Court of Equity, or as an Attorney in any Court of Law in England, the latter Admission shall be free of Duty :
Provided such Attorney or Solicitor shall have paid the proper Stamp Duty on his former Admission, according to the Laws then in force. ”

“ A class of men has therefore been set apart to keep the people from direct approach to the bench, except when they may desire to argue their own cases, which rarely occurs.
In England there are two such barriers, the class of barristers and the class of attorneys. The attorneys keep the people from access to the barristers; the barristers keep the attorneys from access to the court. The attorney prepares the case, represents his client in the proceedings preliminary to the trial, and assists the barrister whom he may retain at the trial, but cannot examine a witness or argue the cause. ”

“ The late Attorney-general dies of yellow fever, or drinks himself to death, or gets promotion, or retires to England, and another Attorney-general is duly appointed by constituted authority in his vacant place. The new man succeeds naturally to the house and furniture of his predecessor—as naturally, indeed, as he succeeds to any of his other functions, offices, and prerogatives. ”

“ I believe he is above any paltry consideration of that sort—but, gentlemen, all men are influenced by one motive or another, and the Attorney-General, though he is the first law officer of the Crown in Ireland, is human like ourselves; he is not above all human frailty, but like other men, doubtless, likes office, and likes the emolument which office brings. But, gentlemen of the jury, it will be your fault if you make your shoulders the stepping-stone for the Attorney-General to spring upon the bench. ”

“ R. 44.—The Attorney and Solicitor General only to draw fiants.—The Attorney and Solicitor-General of Ireland being always of the King's own choice and special nomination, and on whom above any other of his learned counsel, or officers of any of his courts he did, there, as well as in England, repose a more special trust, and impose a more special charge for the preservation of his revenues, possessions and tenures, and at whose hands he did chiefly expect a good account concerning the same ”

“ All barristers of the English Inns of Court were entitled to practise in these Courts, but no attorneys except those admitted by the Court for each circuit. The Northern and Oxford Circuits of the English Bar supplied the Chester and South Wales Circuits with counsel. It was not the professional usage or etiquette for King's Counsel to practise in Wales. Junior counsel practised in every branch—civil, criminal, and equitable. ”

“ There is no obligation on an attorney to minister to the bad passions of his client; it is but rarely that a criminal prosecution is pursued for a valuable private end, the restoration of goods, the maintenance of the good name of the prosecutor, or closing the mouth of a man who has perjured himself in a court of justice. The office of Attorney-General is a public trust, which involves in the discharge of it, the exertion of an almost boundless discretion, by an officer who stands as impartial as a judge. ”

“ The administration of justice in courts of law is not left entirely to the justices and judges. Parties may not always have sufficient confidence in the ability, honesty, and impartiality of the justice by whom a suit is to be tried, to intrust their interests to his judgment. Therefore the constitutions of all the states guaranty to every person the right of trial by a jury. This right has been enjoyed in England many centuries. ”

“ This is true in Scotland also, where the matter is in the hands of a body of officers, known as procurators fiscal, with the Lord Advocate at their head; and even in Ireland a similar system has developed informally by the employment of crown counsel acting under the control of the Attorney General for that kingdom. But in England criminal prosecutions in the vast majority of cases are still, in theory at least, conducted by [134] private persons. [134:1] Any one, whether a person injured or not, may prosecute the offender. ”

“ An attorney-in-fact is simply an agent, the extent of whose capacity to act is bounded only by the powers embodied in his authority, his power of attorney. An attorney-at-law was a public officer, conducting legal proceedings on behalf of others, known as his clients, and attached to the supreme courts of common law at Westminster. Attorneys-at-law corresponded to the solicitors of the courts of chancery and the proctors of the admiralty, ecclesiastical, probate and divorce courts. ”

“ The evil is undoubtedly caused by the centralisation of litigation in London, and the compression within a few months of the year of the whole of the High Court business. There is no valid reason why the Courts should not sit the whole year through, and barristers and judges take their holidays as they personally like to arrange. The amalgamation of the two branches of the legal profession has been much discussed in recent years, and it has [Pg 646] many warm advocates both among barristers and solicitors, one of the strongest being the Solicitor-General. ”

“ There is in England no single officer corresponding to the minister of justice, or attorney general, in other countries, some of the duties performed by them elsewhere being divided in England among a number of authorities, while others are not performed at all. The principal officers who fill this important gap are the Lord Chancellor, the Law Officers of the Crown, and the Director of Public Prosecutions. ”

“ Of course, to occupy the post of Attorney-General, the stepping-stone to that of Lord Chancellor, a man must be a lawyer of considerable ability. It has, however, been very well said that a good lawyer can be nothing else ”

“ In Scotland solicitors in the Supreme Court are not, as in England, the only persons entitled to act as law agents. They share the privilege with writers to the signet in the Supreme Court, with agents at law and procurators in the inferior courts. ”

“ The certainty in England also that criminal prosecutions may in any case be subjected to the power of a public officer by the interposition of the Attorney-General or the Director of Public Prosecutions makes it more important to safeguard a defendant who may be arraigned for a political offense, and whose prosecution may be inspired by reasons of a partisan nature. The magistrates upon whom the task of conducting or superintending the examination would naturally fall are also largely both representative of class interests and unlearned in the law. ”

“ Moreover, nothing in § 205 (e) prevents the Attorney General, who is customarily charged with representing the Government's interests in court, from following his normal procedure of maintaining enforcement suits in the name of the United States itself. [10] No unfairness to the defendants will result. ”

“ The Criminal Court of the District, as a court of general criminal jurisdiction, possessed the power to strike the name of the plaintiff from its rolls as a practicing attorney. This power of removal from the bar is possessed by all courts which have authority to admit attorneys to practice. It is a power which should only be exercised for the most weighty reasons, such as would render the continuance of the attorney in practice incompatible with a proper respect of the court for itself, or a proper regard for the integrity of the profession. ”

“ The Court pointed out there, however, that an attorney was not an 'officer' within the ordinary meaning of that term. Certainly nothing that was said in Ex parte Garland or in any other case decided by this Court places attorneys in the same category as marshals, bailiffs, court clerks or judges. Unlike these officials a lawyer is engaged in a private profession, important though it be to our system of justice. In general he makes his own decisions, follows his own best judgment, collects his own fees and runs his own business. ”

“ A partial remedy for possible evils may be found through the appointment of a judge from the civil courts, or of an experienced lawyer who should become the adviser of the court-martial, in place of the judge-advocate —thus leaving to him the duties of an attorney in behalf of the Government. ”

“ When we congratulate ourselves, as we are so apt to do, on the length of time the system of trial by jury has been established in England, and the safeguard it affords against attempts to strain the law to the prejudice of the accused, we are often unmindful of the fact that the institution has not always proved a safeguard when the court, acting under the influence of the Crown, endeavoured to obtain a conviction. ”

“ Look at the lists of the two houses of parliament, and you will find lawyers predominate in the House of Commons; and, in the upper house, more peers who owe their origin to the law, than have sprung from the army and navy united. There is scarcely a street of any respectability without an attorney, not to mention the numbers that are congregated in the inns of court. In London alone, we are told, there are nearly three thousand certificated attornies, and in the country they are numerous in proportion. ”

“ It is created by the Attorney General as part of his office, he names its members, and they are responsible only to him. It operates under his supervision and direction, and its every decision is subject to his unlimited review and revision. ”

“ The problematic nature of the position of the attorney at law which rests upon the premise that the lawyer acts, on the one hand, on principle as the representative of an individual citizen who appoints and remunerates him, on the other hand, as an agent of administration of justice and lawyer of the community which has assigned him to and entrusts him with his function, has long been especially apparent in criminal jurisdiction. ”

“ Most landed families tried to ensure that at least one member of the family in each generation was educated at the Inns of Court after going to Oxford or Cambridge. In 1739, attorneys formed a "Society of Gentlemen Practitioners in the Courts of Law and Equity". In order to earn a living, most attorneys had to attach themselves to some great patron and serve his interests. So it was hard for an ordinary person to find an impartial attorney or to find any attorney willing to contest a powerful family. ”

“ This latter privilege is confined to serjeants and barristers. Attorneys are regulated by statute, and are subject to many restrictions; having a rate of fees, settled either by statute or established usage; and required [Pg 88] to be fixed by the taxation of an officer of the court before a suit can be brought for them. Barristers are admitted only under the regulations established by the various inns of court; and the serjeants, who long had the monopoly of the Bar of the Common Pleas, are appointed by patent from the king. A barrister cannot be an attorney. ”

“ As the hundreds of cases in the lower courts demonstrate, the Attorney General's actions are voluminously challenged and freuently set aside. No doubt the respect accorded to his findings is much more extensive than that accorded to findings of other agencies, or, to put it technically, 'the scope of inquiry' is more limited. ”

“ HOW TO MAKE AN ATTORNEY-GENERAL. Take a little ugly man, with an eye to his preferment. It is not requisite that he should be much of a lawyer, provided that he be a tolerable politician; but in order to qualify himself for an English Judge, he should first be a Welch one. ”

“ He adds that the Justices do not give enough time in hearing equity cases, and that many suitors are compelled to come before the Council of the Marches, which gives judgment more speedily and at less expense. Appeals in personal actions lay from the Courts of Great Sessions to the Council. Instances of the conflict of jurisdiction between the two bodies were not common, although there were many complaints in general terms of persons being drawn from remote parts of Wales to attend the Council. ”

“ The relatively modern usage of describing the presiding magistrate as judge even when, as in English criminal procedure, he has no control over the judgment, is connected with the change which has separated judicial from general administration.
With the establishment of a separate and independent judiciary, placed beyond the reach of governmental interference, it has been found practicable, in all countries except those of the English law, to intrust to the judges the power of decision on the facts as well as on the law in civil cases. ”

“ A professional class of temporal attorneys whose business it is to appear on behalf of litigants is prominent in the nation. The idea of representation has spread outwards from a king who has so many affairs that he can not conduct them in person. Men often appear to defend themselves in the king's court by attorney. But attorneys do not conduct prospective litigation for a client. Attorneys are now drawn from the knightly class of landed gentlemen, instead of ecclesiastical orders. ”

“ From this review of the authorities in this country, it is apparent, that whilst it may be the general rule that a previous conviction should be had before striking an attorney off the roll for an indictable offence, committed by him when not acting in his character of an attorney, yet that the rule is not an inflexible one. Cases may occur in which such a requirement would result in allowing persons to practise as attorneys, who ought, on every ground of propriety and respect for the administration of the law, to be excluded from such practice. ”