Generally, the term advocate is applied to a lawyer authorized to plead the cause of his clients before a court of law. It is only in Scotland that this word seems to denote a distinct class belonging to the legal profession, the advocates of Scotland being the pleaders before the supreme courts, and corresponding to the barristers of England and Ireland. These advocates all belong to the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, to whom the oral pleadings in the Court of Session is for the most part limited, while they are also competent to plead in all the inferior Scottish courts and in the House of Lords in cases of appeal from the Court of Session. The supreme judges in Scotland, as well as the sheriffs of the various counties, are always selected from among them. Candidates for admission must undergo two separate examinations, one in general scholarship and the other in law.
The Lord Advocate, called also the King's or Queen's Advocate, is the principal law officer of the crown in Scotland. He is the public prosecutor of crimes in the Supreme Court, and senior counsel for the crown in civil causes. Being appointed by the crown, he goes out of office with the administration to which he belongs. As public prosecutor he is assisted by the solicitor-general and by four junior counsel called advocates-depute. The lord-advocate and the solicitor-general, in addition to their official duties, accept of ordinary bar practice. Research Advocate
A bar was a British baker's unit of measurement equivalent to 196 lbs.
In law, a bar is the railing that encloses the place which council occupy in courts of justice; hence the phrase, at the bar of the court, that is, in open court. Hence also persons duly admitted as pleaders or advocates before the courts of England are denominated barristers , and the whole body of such barristers or advocates are called the bar. The enclosed place or dock in which persons accused of crimes stand in court is also called the bar. Near the door of both houses of Parliament there is also a bar, beyond which none but the members and clerks are admitted, and at which counsel, witnesses, offenders against privilege, etc, are heard.
In law, a confidential communication is a communication made by one person to another which the latter cannot be compelled to give in evidence as a witness. Generally all communications made between a client and his agent, between the agent and the counsel in a suit, or between the several parties to a suit, are treated as confidential. The privilege of confidentiality does not extend to disclosures made to a medical adviser, and in England it has been decided also that confessions made to a priest are not to be treated as confidential. Research Confidential Communication
Dartmouth College vs. Woodward was a celebrated American legal case brought to the Supreme Court of the United States upon writ of error from the Superior Court of the State of New Hampshire, and decided in 1819. WilliamWoodward had been appointed secretary and treasurer of the corporation of Dartmouth College by the trustees of the college, twelve in number, as designated by the ancient charter granted by George III. in 1769 to Governor Wentworth, Eleazar Wheelock and ten others. Woodward was removed from office by the trustees on August the 27th, 1816, and refused to give up certain goods, chattels and property then in his keeping, but belonging to Dartmouth College. On June the 27th 1816, the New Hampshire Legislature, under the influence of the Democrats, had passed an act amending the charter and enlarging and altering the (Federalist) corporation of Dartmouth College; that is, the number of trustees was increased to twenty-one, there were twenty-five special overseers appointed, and the State was to have a general supervision of the affairs of the college. This act, and a similar one, passed on December the 26th, 1816, to enforce the first, were wholly repugnant to the trustees, who refused to obey them. William Woodward had been appointed secretary and treasurer of the new board of twenty-one trustees selected by the State. Suit was brought against him by the old trustees to recover the property of the college then in his keeping. The Superior Court of New Hampshire gave a verdict for the defendant. The US Supreme Court reversed and annulled this decision, allowing the plaintiffs $20,000 damages. It was decided by the court that the charter of Dartmouth College is a contract within the meaning of that clause of the Constitution which prohibits the States from passing any law impairing the obligation of contracts. Hence the New Hampshire law was declared unconstitutional. Daniel Webster was chief counsel for the plaintiff. Research Dartmouth College Vs Woodward
The Parsons' Case was a celebrated American legal case won by Patrick Henry in the November session of the Court of Hanover County, Virginia, in 1763. This case involved the constitutionality of the 'option law' or 'two penny act', passed by the Virginia Legislature in 1758. The operation of this act affected each parish minister, compelling him to receive the value of the 16,000 pounds of tobacco, due for his year's services, in paper money of the colony, amounting to 133 pounds instead of 400 pounds sterling, the selling value of the tobacco. The clergy appealed to the crown. The crown disallowed (vetoed) the law. Under this disallowance the Reverend James Maury having sued for damages, the court squarely adjudged the act to be no law, and decided for the plaintiff. A new trial was allowed on a demurrer, and Patrick Henry was retained a counsel for the defendant. His eloquence induced the jury, a picked jury, to return one penny damages for the plaintiff. Patrick Henry's success in the case made him an instant celebrity in America. Research Parsons' Case
Antoine Pierre Nerryier was a French advocate and statesman. He was born in 1790 at Paris and died in 1868. In 1814 he proclaimed at Rennes the deposition of Napoleon, and remained until his death an avowed Legitimist. He assisted his father in the defence of Ney, secured the acquittal of General Cambronne, and defended Lamennais from a charge of atheism. His eloquence was compared with that of Mirabeau, and after the dethronement of Charles X in 1830 he remained in the Chamber as the sole Legitimist orator.
His political services won for him a public subscription of 400,000 francs in 1836 to meet his pecuniary difficulties. In 1840 he was one of the counsel for the defence of Louis Napoleon after the Boulogne fiasco. In 1843 he did homage to the Gomte de Chambord in London, adhering to him through the revolution of 1848, and voting for the deposition of the prince-president the morning after the coup d'etat. He gained additional reputation in 1858 by his defence of Montalembert, and was counsel for the Patterson-Bonapartes in the suit for the recognition of the Baltimore marriage. In 1863 he was re-elected to the Chamber with Thiers, and in 1864 received a flattering reception in England. Research Antoine Berryer
In England, an attorney is a person appointed to do something for and in the stead and name of another. An attorney may have general powers to act for another; or his power may be special, and limited to a particular act or acts. A special attorney is appointed by a deed called a power or letter of attorney, specifying the acts which he is authorized to do. An attorney at law is a person qualified to appear for another before a court of law to prosecute or defend any action on behalf of his client. 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 has been abolished, 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. Research Attorney
Benjamin R Curtis was an American judge. He was born in 1809 and died in 1874. He was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1851 by President Eillmore, dissented in the Dred Scott case and resigned in 1857. He was one of the counsel for President Johnson in the impeachment trial of 1868. Research Benjamin Curtis
Caleb Cushing was an American politician. He was born in 1800 and died in 1879. Educated at Harvard he rose to eminence at the Massachusetts bar. He was a Representative from Massachusetts in Congress in 1835 until 1843, having been a Whig and, from Tyler's time, a Democrat. He was a US Commissioner to China, a brigadier-general during the Mexican War, and an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. From 1853until 1857 he was a member of Pierce's Cabinet as Attorney-General. In 1860 he presided over the democratic National Convention which met at Charleston. His high reputation as a lawyer led to his appointment as US counsel before the Geneva Tribunal of 1872, and to his nomination by Grant as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, though he failed in confirmation of the office and was sent as US minister to Spain in 1874 where he remained until 1877. Research Caleb Cushing
Charles O'Conor was an American jurist. He was born in 1804 at New York and died in 1884. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty. He sympathized with the Confederates during the American Civil War. He was nominated for President of the United States by the Labor Reform branch of the Democratic party in 1872. He was counsel for Jefferson Davis when he was indicted for treason. He was largely the means of destroying the 'Tweed Ring', and was noted as a lawyer. Research Charles O'Conor
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Advocate
