Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
SOLICITOR, n. As in Eng., a law-agent. Sc. phr. Solicitor †before or in the Supreme Court(s) of Scotland, a member of an incorporated Society of Solicitors practising in Edinburgh (see quot.). A member of the Society appends the letters S.S.C. to his name. Cf. Signet. The word solicitor, though in gen. use in Scotland as a borrowing from Eng. usage in the 18th-c., was formally introduced only by the Solicitors (Scotland) Act of 1933. †The King's (Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institute I. iv. 268), †His Majesty's (Sc. 1738 J. Chamberlayne Present State 164) Solicitor, now the Solicitor General for Scotland, acts as crown advocate in civil causes and as the chief deputy of the Lord Advocate in criminal causes in Scotland.Sc. 1930 Encycl. Laws Scot. IX. 47:
In 1797 the thirty-seven solicitors then practising obtained from the Crown a charter incorporating them and subsequent members of the Society into a corporation entitled “The Society of Solicitors in the Court of Session, Commission of Teinds, and High Court of Justiciary of Scotland”. This charter was confirmed and amended by a private Act of Parliament, passed on 13th July 1871, which reincorporated the Society under the name of “The Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland”.
