Solicitors Act 1957

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1957 c. 27


Solicitors Act , 1957

(5 & 6 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 27

An Act to consolidate the Solicitors Acts, 1932 to 1956, and certain other enactments relating to solicitors, with corrections and improvements made under the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act, 1949.

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I Provisions Relating to Right to Practise as Solicitor

Part I

Provisions Relating to Right to Practise as Solicitor

Qualifications to practise as, and privileges and rights of, solicitor

Qualifications to practise as, and privileges and rights of, solicitor

S-1 Qualifications for practising as solicitor.

1 Qualifications for practising as solicitor.

1. No person shall be qualified to act as a solicitor unless—

a ) he has been admitted as a solicitor; and
b ) his name is for the time being on the roll; and
c ) he has in force a certificate issued by the Society in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act authorising him to practise as a solicitor (in this Act referred to as a ‘practising certificate’)

and for the purposes of this Act a practising certificate shall be deemed not to be in force at any time while it is suspended by an order under subsection (2) of section thirteen or by virtue of section fourteen of this Act.

S-2 Rights and privileges of qualified solicitors.

2 Rights and privileges of qualified solicitors.

(1) Subject to the next following subsection, every person qualified in accordance with the foregoing section may practise as a solicitor—

(a ) in the Supreme Court;

(b ) in any county court;

(c ) upon signing the roll of solicitors of any inferior court of law or equity which keeps such a roll (but without payment of any fee), in that court;

(d ) in all courts and before all persons having jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical; and

(e ) in all matters relating to applications to obtain notarial faculties,

and shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges, and may exercise and perform all the powers and duties, formerly appertaining to the office or profession of a proctor in the provincial, diocesan or other jurisdictions in England.

(2) Nothing in the foregoing subsection shall affect the provisions of section one hundred and twenty of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act, 1925 (which imposes on officers of the Supreme Court restrictions as to practise as a solicitor), section thirty of the County Courts Act, 1934 (which imposes such restrictions on officers of a county court), or section eighty-six of the said Act of 1934 (which relates to the rights of solicitors to address a county court), or of any other enactment in force at the commencement of this Act which restricts the right of any solicitor to practise as such in any court.

(3) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall prejudice or affect any right of practising or being heard in, before or by any court, tribunal or other body which immediately before the commencement of this Act was enjoyed by virtue of any enactment, rule, order or regulation or by custom or otherwise by persons qualified to act as solicitors.

Admission as solicitor

Admission as solicitor

S-3 General provisions as to admission as solicitor.

3 General provisions as to admission as solicitor.

(1) Subject to the next following section and to subsection (3) of section twenty of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1949 (which relates to the admission as solicitors of certain persons who have served as assistant to a justices' clerk), no person shall be admitted as a solicitor unless he has satisfied the Society that he has complied with such requirements as the Society may by regulations made with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls prescribe with respect to—

(a ) service under articles;

(b ) attendance at a course of legal education; and

(c ) the passing of examinations,

and unless the Society is also satisfied as to that person's moral fitness to be an officer of the Supreme Court:

Provided that no person shall be disqualified for admission as a solicitor by reason only that a solicitor whom he has served for the whole or any part of the term of articled service required in his case by any such regulations has neglected or omitted to take out a practising certificate in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act, or by reason only that the name of a solicitor whom he has served for any period has after the termination of that period been removed from or struck off the roll.

(2) Any such regulations may make different provision for different circumstances and may include provision for the charging by the Society, and the application, of fees.

(3) Any person who has obtained a certificate that the Society is satisfied as required by subsection (1) of this section may apply to the Master of the Rolls to be admitted as a solicitor; and thereupon the Master of the Rolls, or any judge of the High Court whom the Master of the Rolls may by writing under his hand have appointed to act for the time being on his behalf for that purpose, shall, unless cause to the contrary, whether by reason of subsection (1) of this section or otherwise, is shown to his satisfaction, by writing under his hand, and in such manner and form as the Master of the Rolls may from time to time think fit, admit that person to be a solicitor.

S-4 Admission as solicitors of certain overseas solicitors.

4 Admission as solicitors of certain overseas solicitors.

(1) Subject to subsection (1) of the next following section, a solicitor of a superior court in any territory to which this subsection for the time being applies who has been in practice before that court for not less than three years may, and a solicitor of such a court who has for not less than three years served bona fide as a clerk to a solicitor in England may with the consent of the Council of the Society, be admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court—

(a ) after giving due notice and the prescribed proof of his qualifications and good character; and

(b ) after passing the prescribed examination or, in the prescribed cases, without examination; and

(c ) after service under articles during the prescribed period or, in the prescribed cases, without such service; and

(d ) on payment of the prescribed amount in respect of fees.

(2) Where, as respects a superior court in a territory such as is mentioned in subsection (4) of this section, Her Majesty in Council is satisfied on the report of a Secretary of State—

(a ) that the regulations respecting the admission of solicitors of that court are such as to secure that those solicitors possess proper qualifications and competency; and

(b ) that by the law of that territory solicitors of the Supreme Court will be admitted as solicitors of the superior court in that territory on terms as favourable as those on which it is proposed to admit solicitors of that superior court in pursuance of the foregoing subsection as solicitors of the Supreme Court.

Her Majesty may by Order in Council apply the foregoing subsection to that superior court and that territory subject to any exceptions, conditions and modifications specified in the Order, and by the same or any subsequent Order in Council may, as respects that court and territory, provide for all matters authorised by this section to be prescribed and for all matters appearing to Her Majesty to be necessary or proper for giving effect to the Order and to this section.

(3) Her Majesty may by Order in Council revoke or vary any Order previously made under this section.

(4) The territories referred to in subsection (2) of this section are—

(a ) any part or parts of Her Majesty's dominions outside the United Kingdom under a single legislature or under the same central legislature;

(b ) the Republic of India;

(c ) the Republic of Pakistan;

(d ) any territory or part of a territory included in any of the three foregoing paragraphs which is under a local as well as a central legislature;

(e ) the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland;

(f ) any foreign country in which for the time being Her Majesty has jurisdiction and to which this section has for the time being been extended by or by virtue of an Order in Council made under the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts, 1890 and 1913.

(5) In this section, the expressions ‘superior court’ and ‘solicitor’ mean respectively, as respects any territory, such court in that territory and such solicitor, attorney, law agent or other person entitled to practise as agent in a court of law in that territory as may be prescribed.

S-5 Additional provisions with respect to admissions of overseas solicitors.

5 Additional provisions with respect to admissions of overseas solicitors.

(1) A person admitted under the Colonial Solicitors Act, 1900, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, as a solicitor in Scotland or in Northern Ireland shall not, whilst remaining such a solicitor, be admitted under the last foregoing section as a solicitor of the Supreme Court, and for the purposes of this subsection a person who before the first day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, was admitted under the said Act of 1900 as a solicitor in Ireland shall be deemed to have been admitted under that Act as a solicitor in Northern Ireland.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (2) of section six of the said Act of 1900 (which makes for Scotland and Northern Ireland provision corresponding to the foregoing subsection), a person admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court under the last foregoing section shall be deemed to have been admitted as a solicitor in England under that Act.

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