Attorney - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition attorney

Definition :

Attorney [fr. tourne, Fr., or fr. attornatus, Medieval Lat., substituted], one who is appointed by another to do something in his absence, and who has authority to act in the place and turn of him by whom he is delegated. He is of two kinds.

(1) Attorney at Law was a public officer belonging to the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster, who conducted legal proceedings on behalf of others, called his clients, by whom he was retained: he answered to the Solicitor in the Courts of Chancery, and the Proctor of the Admiralty, Ecclesiastical, Probate, and Divorce Courts. An attorney was almost invariably also a solicitor. The name 'Solicitor' was provided by the (English) Judicature Act, 1873, s. 87. The (English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 215(2) provides that references in any enactment to solicitors, attorneys or proctors shall be construed as references to solicitors of the Supreme Court. see SOLICITORS.

(2) Attorney in Fact, including all agents employed in any business or to do any act in pais for another; also a person acting under a special agency, whose authority must be expressed by deed, commonly called a power of attorney, 1 Bac. Abr., tit. 'Attorney.' See POWER OF ATTORNEY.