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A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with any legal matter in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to practise there as such. For example, in England and Wales a solicitor is admitted to practise under the provisions of the Solicitors Act 1974. With some exceptions, practising solicitors must possess a practising certificate. There are many more solicitors than barristers in England; they undertake the general aspects of giving legal advice and conducting legal proceedings.〔A Dictionary of Law (7 ed.), J Law and EA Martin, Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780191726729〕 In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states, Hong Kong, South Africa (where they are called ''attorneys'') and Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers (called advocates in some countries), and a lawyer will usually only hold one of the two titles. However, in Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and most Australian states, the legal profession is now for practical purposes "fused", allowing lawyers to hold the title of "barrister and solicitor" and practise as both. Some legal graduates will start off as one and then also qualify as the other.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Converting From Barrister To Solicitor )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ex-Freshfields solicitor switches to the Bar )〕 ==England and Wales== (詳細はSupreme Court of Judicature under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873, solicitors practised in the Court of Chancery, attorneys practised in the common law courts and proctors practised in the ecclesiastical courts. After 1873 the offices of "attorney" and "proctor" disappeared as terms relating to legally qualified persons, being replaced by "Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales", except for the unique government offices of Queen's or King's Proctor (now generally Treasury Solicitor which is co-held with the title), and Attorney-General.〔''Oxford English Dictionary''〕 Since the replacement of the judicial aspect of the House of Lords with the Supreme Court the full title of a solicitor is "Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales".〔Solicitors Journal 5 October 2009〕 The term "attorney" is however still used under English law to refer to someone legally appointed or empowered (who may but need not be legally qualified) to act for another person. Currently, the term is most commonly used to refer to someone so appointed under the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to act in this manner in a Lasting Power of Attorney. Practitioners in specialist professions, notably intellectual property, are also referred to as attorneys, for example Registered Patent Attorney or Registered Trade Mark Attorney. In the English legal system, solicitors traditionally dealt with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts although solicitors were required to engage a barrister as advocate in a High Court or above after the profession split in two. Minor criminal cases are tried in Magistrates Courts, which constitute by far the majority of courts. More serious criminal cases still start in the Magistrates Court and may then be transferred to a higher court. The majority of civil cases are tried in county courts and are almost always handled by solicitors. Cases of higher value (£50,000 or above) and those of unusual complexity are tried in the High Court, and barristers, as the other branch of the English legal profession, have traditionally carried out the functions of advocacy in the High Court and Crown Court and Court of Appeal. However, barristers have now lost this exclusivity and solicitors may now extend their advocacy to such courts. In the past, barristers did not deal with the public directly. This rigid separation no longer applies. Solicitor advocates with extended rights of audience may now act as advocates at all levels of the courts. Conversely, the public may now hire and interact with a barrister directly in certain types of work without having to go to a solicitor first.〔(Public Access )〕 Registered Patent Attorneys and Registered Trade Mark Attorneys also have rights of audience in intellectual property matters. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「solicitor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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