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- Newsgroups: misc.legal
- Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!cthorne
- From: cthorne@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Charles E Thorne)
- Subject: Re: Attorney v. Lawyer
- Message-ID: <1992Dec21.135251.29758@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
- Sender: news@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
- Organization: The Ohio State University
- References: <1992Dec20.4141.28403@dosgate>
- Distribution: misc
- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 13:52:51 GMT
- Lines: 42
-
- In article <1992Dec20.4141.28403@dosgate> "nigel allen" <nigel.allen@canrem.com> writes:
-
- >In England, lawyers are either solicitors or barristers. Both solicitors
- >and barristers can appear before the lower courts, but normally only a
- >barrister can appear before a higher court. A client cannot hire a
- >barrister directly; instead, the client must go through a solicitor, who
- >deals with the barrister.
-
- >Judges of the higher courts are all former barristers.
-
- >Canadian lawyers identify themselves as "barrister and solicitor" rather
- >than "attorney". One exception is Quebec's notaries, who have legal
- >training comparable to that of the regular lawyer, but whose practice is
- >normally restricted to non-adversarial matters (real estate
- >transactions, wills, trusts, etc.). In the rest of Canada, notaries
- >public have the same limited functions as notaries public in the United
- >States, except that in Ontario (and possibly certain other provinces)
- >all lawyers are automatically notaries public.
-
- In the United States a notary essentially provides an "official" witness
- to documents (placing a seal on the document) and attesting that the
- person appeared before them, and signed the document. Courts will not
- accepted documents (such as deeds) which have not been notarized. Also,
- auto titles must be notarized when transferred. The only other things
- notaries can do is take depositions.
-
- Notaries pass a state exam and are certified by the state. Lawyers become
- life-time notaries, whereas non-lawyer notaries must renew they notary
- charter (until recently, in Ohio, non-lawyer notaries could only practice
- in their county of residence -- but could also become notaries in any
- adjoing county).
-
- At one time, becoming a lawyer (attorney) only required one to pass the
- bar exam. Now most states require graduation from law school before one
- can take the bar exam.
-
- In Ohio no one may represent another person at the bar except an attorney.
- Para-legals can only perform under the supervision of an attorney (mostly
- preparing paper work).
-
-
- Charlie
-