advocate

Advocate

To support or defend by argument; to recommend publicly. An individual who presents or argues another's case; one who gives legal advice and pleads the cause of another before a court or tribunal; a counselor. A person admitted to the Practice of Law who advises clients of their legal rights and argues their cases in court.

advocate

in Scotland, a member of the faculty of advocates. (Note, however, that in Aberdeen solicitors call themselves advocates.) An advocate is the Scottish equivalent of a BARRISTER. Advocates have the exclusive right to represent parties in the higher courts, subject, since legislation first introduced in 1990, to the provision that a SOLICITOR ADVOCATE is allowed to appear in these courts as well. The Faculty is a self-regulating body dating from the early 16th century. Its head is the elected Dean of Faculty. He is assisted by a Council.

Training and education involves an LLB degree and a diploma in legal practice. The aspiring advocate breaks off the period of traineeship in a solicitor's office and then spends a period of pupillage, assisting and learning from his pupil master. Specialized court skills training is given. The entrant has to be elected at the end of the process.

The professional code of the advocate is similar to that of the barrister, involving an obligation to act for any client willing to pay the necessary fee. The barrister's immunity for negligence having been departed from, it may reasonably be assumed that advocates will now be liable for their negligence in Scotland.

Advocates do not practise in chambers; rather they are independent. They do arrange to have one clerk act for a number of advocates. Although the advocate's fee is legally an honorarium and not recoverable through the courts, the Faculty established Faculty Services Ltd, which acts as a debt collector for members and provides them with general office services.

ADVOCATE, civil and ecclesiastical law. 1. An officer who maintains or de fends the rights of his client in the same manner as the counsellor does in the common law.
     2. Lord Advocate. An, officer of state in Scotland, appointed by the king, to advise about the making and executing the law, to prosecute capital crimes, &c.
     3. College or faculty of advocates. A college consisting of 180 persons, appointed to plead in. all actions before the lords of sessions.
     4. Church or ecclesiastical advocates. Pleaders appointed by the church to maintain its rights.
     5.-2. A patron who has the advowson or presentation to a church. Tech. Dict.; Ayl. Per. 53; Dane Ab. c.,31, Sec. 20. See Counsellor at law; Honorarium.