Solicitor

“ I have always understood that where marriage settlements of any consideration are concerned, it is customary to employ a solicitor. I can’t quote my authority, but, I feel sure that I am right.
Mrs. V. B. Old Mr. Smailey is an executor under Captain Van Brugh’s will, and his solicitor has always acted for me.
Dr. A. His solicitor! what, that queer little red-faced fellow who accompanies him everywhere?
Mrs. V. B. No. Ha! ha! ha! I suppose Mr. Fitz Partington is a junior partner, or head clerk, or something of the kind—at all events, his name doesn’t appear in the firm. ”

“ A solicitor “most respectable,”—a phrase that has become almost synonymous with rascality,—a regular church-goer,—accounts kept with scrupulous exactness,—a man of honest face, distinguished for probity of speech and integrity of heart,—what could the Trevannions do? What more than the Smiths and the Browns and the Joneses, who, notwithstanding their presumed greater skill in the ways of a wicked lawyer world, are duped every day in a similar manner. ”

“ An English solicitor’s bill drawn in the old form is a voluminous itemized narrative of every act done by him in the cause or matter with a charge set against each entry and often against each letter written. Before the solicitor can recover from his client the amount of his charges, he must deliver a signed bill of costs and wait a month before suing. ”

“ Many a muddle makes a muckle for the lawyers.
No suit lasts longer than a suit in Chancery.
A conveyancer is never afraid of drafts.
A brief in the hand is worth two in a solicitor’s office.
’Tis better to have fought and lost than to have had no case at all.
Little plaintiffs have large fears.
The good solicitor is known by his good deeds.
Two heads, a leader and a junior, are better than one.
Law for Ladies.—Why ought every lady nowadays to learn the legal doctrine concerning “wrong to the person”?
Ans. They ought to learn it because it’s tort. (Ask any barrister!) ”

“ She had laughed often at his dry-as-dust talk with her father—the dull discussions about leases and bills of dilapidation. A solicitor living from year’s end to year’s end in a country town—what a dreary person he must needs appear beside the brilliant young Patrician, full of the gladness of the life that knows neither labour nor care. ”

“ Doubtless such sales are usually conducted under the advice of the solicitor of the complainant, and it is sometimes said that the solicitor, in all questions arising between the vendor and purchaser, must be considered as the agent of all the parties to the suit; but it is believed that the remark must be received with some qualification. [8] Suppose it to be so, however, in a qualified sense; still it is true that the marshal or master, as the case may be, is the officer of the court, and that as such his acts and proceedings are subject to the revision and control of the court. ”

“ A. A Barrister is forced to do his best for his client, but a Solicitor is not. As a rule the Solicitor deputes to his Chief Clerk if he has one, or somebody in the office if he has not, the duties of conducting a suit through Chambers. ”

“ Only when you are writing to your solicitor."
"What's 'solicitor'?"
"He's the gentleman who takes the money. He's always coming in." [Pg 54]
"Then write 'solicitor.'"
I took the pencil (it was my turn for it) and wrote SOLICITOR. Then I read it out slowly to Margery, spelt it to her three times very carefully, and wrote SOLICITOR again. Then I said it thoughtfully to myself half-a-dozen times—"Solicitor." ”

“ No one may practice as an attorney in the courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer until he has been examined by a judge of such court on his fitness and qualifications and has taken the oath to honestly demean himself and practice according to his best knowledge and ability. The same applies to a solicitor in the equity courts. This shall not exclude persons who have been bound to an attorney or solicitor for four years. Attorneys and solicitors, with consent of an attorney of another court, may participate in proceedings of such other court. ”

“ Indeed, could one be certain that such a solicitor never undertook any case unless he was satisfied that his client had right on his side, should we not have to admit that the speculative solicitor was a ministering angel engaged in a practice of delivering the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him? ”

“ A. That the plaintiff was described as being manufactured of no more substantial material. Q. If a man is made of straw, how can he obtain assistance from a solicitor? A. By approaching a member of the junior branch of the legal profession who possesses no rooted objection to speculation. Q. What is a speculative action? A. It is an action brought to give a solicitor a chance of getting costs. Q. Is the length of trial a matter of importance to the plaintiff? A. Certainly not, because he stands to win one way and not to lose on the other. ”

“ Once the accused has been apprehended and charged, he has the statutory right to a private interview with a solicitor and to be brought before a magistrate with all convenient speed so that he may, if so advised, emit a declaration in presence of his solicitor under conditions which safeguard him against prejudice. ”

“ LINE WHICH SEPARATES THEM FROM THE BAR—SOLICITOR A BUSINESS MAN—FAMILY SOLICITORS—GREAT CITY FIRMS OF SOLICITORS—THE NUMBER OF SOLICITORS IN ENGLAND AND WALES—TENDENCY TOWARD ABOLISHING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN BARRISTER AND SOLICITOR—SOLICITORS WEAR NO DISTINCTIVE DRESS EXCEPT IN COUNTY COURTS—SOLICITORS' BAGS.
The line which separates solicitors from the Bar—the barristers—is difficult for an American to fully appreciate, for in our country it does not exist. ”

“ And, in this country, the distinction between attorney or solicitor and counsel is practically abolished in nearly all the States. The lawyer in charge of a case acts both as solicitor and counsel. His services in the one capacity and the other cannot be well distinguished. And, as a general rule, counsel fees, as well as those of attorney or solicitor, constitute a legal demand for which an action will lie. And whilst, as between party and party in a cause, the statutory fee bill fixes the amount of costs to be recovered, as between attorney or solicitor and client a different rule obtains. ”

“ The marked difference, therefore, that distinguishes the solicitor's training from that of the barrister, is the absence of any Inn of Court—with its esprit de corps—as a commanding influence in shaping his development and governing his whole career. Nevertheless, while the whole body of solicitors is, perhaps, not as liberally educated nor as polished as the Bar, the higher grade of solicitors are lawyers quite as well equipped, and gentlemen equally accomplished, as members of the Bar itself. ”

“ A counsel does not commit any breach of etiquette in advising, without the intervention of an English solicitor, on a case submitted to him by a colonial advocate in a colony where the professions of barrister and solicitor are combined. ”

“ Subject to the above, practising solicitors of not less than five years' standing may be called to the bar without keeping any terms, upon passing the necessary examinations, and, per contra, a barrister of the same standing may, without any period of apprenticeship, become a solicitor upon passing the final examination for solicitors. ”

“ After locating where a suspect lived who was hard to find, a man would appear next day as one of the solicitors of the City Directory whose business it was to get the name of every man in each house. [Pg 261] The solicitor was usually a very old looking man. ”

“ A solicitor who does not strive to appear coram populo on terms of quite unnecessarily familiar intercourse with his leading counsel.
An articled clerk who does not dress beyond his thirty shillings a-week, and think that the whole court is lost in speculation as to the identity of that distinguished-looking young man.
An associate who does not go into ecstasies of merriment over every joke or obiter dictum from the Bench. ”

“ All Englishmen of substance, and all firms and corporations, have their regular solicitors and the relation is frequently handed down from generation to generation. It is, of course, unusual except in large corporations to have a permanent barrister, because the solicitor selects one from time to time, as the occasion requires, and the client is rarely even consulted in the choice. ”

“ Granting that solicitors may properly advise the officer, still it must be borne in mind that the authority and discretion in making the sale are to a certain extent primarily vested in the officer designated in the decree. Unreasonable directions of the solicitor are not obligatory and should not be followed, as if the solicitor should direct the property to be struck off at great sacrifice when but a single bidder attended the sale. ”

“ Justice Doughty; “the solicitor for the defendant said something to the plaintiff, I don’t quite follow that.”
Mr. Justice Technical observed that it was quite clear that what is said by the solicitor of one party to the solicitor of another party is not evidence.
“O,” said the learned Pangloss, “so far back as the time of Justinian it was laid down—”
“And that being so,” said the eminent Chancery Judge, Mr. Justice Technical, “I should go so far as to say, that what the solicitor of one party says to the client stands upon the same footing.” ”

“ The relation of solicitor and client disqualifies the former from dealing with his client on his own behalf, while it gives him a lien, on professional services, over the deeds, &c, of the client in his possession. A solicitor's remuneration is minutely arranged by statute and he has no power of recovering more from his client than his statutory charges, and he is liable to be sued for damages for negligence in his client's behalf. Certain personal privileges belong to a solicitor. ”

“ Thus much for advocacy in general. “I will now,” as Lord Chesterfield says, “consider some of the various modes and degrees of it.” I assume that you are a young solicitor entrusted by some hopeful and friendly client with a County Court Action. Your first duty as a solicitor advocate is to get something on account of costs. Do not omit this common opening. A gambit here is a mistake. The fact of your client being a personal friend makes it the more necessary. Many a friendship has not survived a fourteen days’ order to pay a debt and costs. ”

“ No doubt a sensible solicitor might have advised me that the risk was no greater than all men have to take in dangerous trades; but such an opinion, though it may encourage a client, does not protect him. For example, if a publisher asks his solicitor whether he may venture on an edition of Sterne's Sentimental Journey, or a manager whether he may produce King Lear without risk of prosecution, the solicitor will advise him to go ahead. ”

“ The term in England was formerly applied especially to those practising before the supreme courts of common law at Westminster, and corresponded to the term solicitor used in courts of Chancery; but this distinction was abolished in 1873, and solicitor is now the regular term for all such legal agents. In the United States the term is in common use, and is wide enough to include what in England would be called barristers (or counsel) , in Scotland advocates, having indeed the general sense of lawyer. In America women are admitted as attorneys. ”

“ Already solicitors possess the right of audience in the county courts, the limit of whose jurisdiction is constantly being increased, with the result of developing a species of solicitor-advocate, whose functions are very similar to those of the barrister. The more this progresses, the greater will be the number of solicitors who will become known as court practitioners, and whose services will be sought by the public and even by other solicitors, providing an existing act forbidding the latter is repealed. ”

“ The magistrate said, that bearing in mind the public character of the business on which the defendant was engaged, he would discharge him on payment of half-a-crown and the funeral expenses.
The fine was at once paid.
THE MUZZLING REGULATIONS
Another culprit.
At the New Law Courts.—The cry of the solicitor who has to go to the top story to transact business is, “Please give us a lift.” The solicitor’s lift, if introduced, will be called a conveyancer.
A Very Bad Judge.—The man who tries his friends.
Motto for a Man Reprieved from the Gallows.—No noose is good news. ”

“ A solicitor having announced that he is prepared to make the wills of the men of a certain regiment free of charge, another enterprising legal gentleman, not be be outdone, would like it to known that he is willing to act as residuary legatee without a fee. ”

“ I answered that certainly it would be most easy, but that we solicitors had a system of agency one for the other, so that local work could be done locally on instruction from any solicitor, so that the client, simply placing himself in the hands of one man, could have his wishes carried out by him without further trouble. ”

“ Long experience of sitting as Judge in an inferior Court has led me to believe that it is not necessary or convenient that the advocacy should also be inferior, and I humbly commend this point of view to the younger members of both branches of the Profession.
Perhaps the most important Court from the young solicitor’s point of view is the County Court. A solicitor is allowed to act for a client in a County Court. When he is acting he has what is called a right of audience. ”

“ The power of the attorney—now called solicitor—for mischief is very greatly curtailed;—a taxing master looks after his bills; he can no longer clap a debtor into prison; he is liable to be struck off the rolls for misconduct. ”

“ The great hardship of the present system is the increased expense of litigation. The client engages a solicitor, and explains the case to him. In the County Court the solicitor can conduct the case alone, but, if the case comes up in a Superior Court, he must engage a barrister, for whose services the client pays. The barrister must then be instructed. All the facts are written out, the evidence copied, and a brief made out by the solicitor for the guidance of the barrister in pleading the case. ”