Attorney
In the Anglo-American legal system, an attorney denotes a legal trustee or authorized representative. The term includes both the lawyer and the public prosecutor according to German legal understanding.
Great Britain
Historically, the name developed in medieval England. The law and the courts were divided into common law with the common law courts and equity with the Court of Chancery . Only so-called barristers appeared in oral negotiations . The processing of the case, on the other hand , was taken over by the attorneys in the common law courts , and by the solicitors in the courts of chancery .
There are no longer any Attorneys in the UK legal system . Legal work is done by barristers , solicitors and (in Scotland ) by advocates .
In Sri Lanka , which was shaped by the British legal system as a former British colony, the change from the two-pronged legal system (consisting of advocates and proctors ) to the single- pronged (with attorneys ) took place in 1974 .
United States
In the USA, on the other hand, attorney at law (also: attorney-at-law ) is the official name for a lawyer alongside counselor - there is no separation between litigation representatives and preparatory advice as in the British legal system. Also, prosecutors are there often as attorneys referred to the level of responsibility is preceded by the title: county attorney , attorney district and so on until the United States Attorney General , the counterpart to the German federal prosecutor , who, however, also acts in the United States as head of the Justice Department.