What is the difference Between Lawyer, Advocate, Barrister, Attorney and more! (2023)

Lets start with a simple question

So Mahatma Gandhi was Barrister, No No he was a Lawyer

He was an Advocate or was an Attorney ?

Hey everybody! This is Priya

today's we will learn about the commonly used terms and difference between them and I promise by the end of this video you will be able to understand all these terms easily and you will also able to understand when to use these terms and when not

The first two terms are Lawyer and Barrister

Firstly we will understand about Lawyer, whom we call as Vakeel also

Basically Lawyer is a person who has studied law means a law graduate

So the person who has law degree, whether of 3 years LLB course or 5 years. That person becomes lawyer

But being only a lawyer can you represent any client in the court and can you argue for their case in the court?

No you can't represent them in court or argue.

The 2nd term Barrister is also similar to this

If you have studied law in India, you become a Lawyer

and if you have studied law in England, you become Barrister

Only the terms are used differently but the meaning of both is same

and similar to the Lawyer, Barrister also can't represent clients in the court, they can't argue on any case

When a Lawyer enroll himself with the Bar council, then he becomes Advocate

we also call them as "Adhivakta"

So if you have completed law, then you have to give Bar Council of India Exam

after passing the exam you will enroll there and you will get the license of practicing in court

and you will get promoted from Lawyer to Advocate

So basically if any person introduce himself as an Advocate

it means that he has the license to practice and he can represent their client in the court

basically this is the difference between a Lawyer and an Advocate

A Lawyer has only law degree he cannot argue in the court

Where as an Advocate is enrolled with the Bar council and he has the license to practice in the court

We will look at the three terms used for this also

Advocate, Senior Advocate and Advocate on Record

We learned about the Advocate, they can represent clients in the court and can practice

Now who is Senior Advocate?

This designation is given by Supreme court/ High court to those Advocates

who has good amount of knowledge and experience

means who has practice experience of more than 10 years and have appeared in many cases

and how many cases are in their favor, by seeing all these it is decided.

once who become Senior Advocate they wear different gown and coat

and their fees also becomes expensive

basically this designation of Senior Advocate is given on the basis of their special knowledge and experience

now comes Advocate on Record (AOR)

Do you know? That only an (AOR) can case a file in Supreme Court

Generally every court has its rules, functions and procedures

similarly Supreme court has its own rules

so if everyone will approach Supreme Court, then their is probability that court's time will be wasted

So that's why those who are registered on (AOR) only those Advocates can file a case in Supreme Court

Any one can draft a case and can argue as well

only for filing the case this requirement or restriction is their, that it should it done only by an (AOR)

because they know the functions and rules of the Supreme Court

You have pass Supreme Court AOR exam to become and AOR

The eligibility required for the SC AOR exam is

one should have experience of more than 5 years

and these 5 years is divided as (4 +1 year)

means 4 years experience of any court plus 1 year practice experience under any AOR of Supreme Court

and that AOR must have practice experience of more than 10 years

So this was the difference between an Advocate, Senior Advocate and Advocate on Record

Now we will discuss about Advocate general which we also call as Mahaadhivakta

Every state's Governor appoints Advocate General for their state

If state Govt. needs representation in the court in any matter.

then Advocate General's job is to represent State govt. in the court

So Advocate General represents all the cases of State Govt.

because they represent state govt. in court they are called as 1st Law Officer of the State

and if state govt. needs any legal advice in any matter they also play role as Legal Advisor of State

Now we will discuss about Attorney General which we also call as "Mahanyayvaadi"

We previously saw that Advocate General represents state govt. in the court

and that's why they are known as 1st law officer of the state

Similarly Central Govt. is represented by Attorney general

so their job is to deal cases of Central govt. and represent them in the court

and that's why they are known as 1st Law officer of the country

they are appointed by President of India

so basically Attorney general's job is to represent Central govt. and look after their cases

and if Central govt. needs any legal advice on any matter, then they take advice from the Attorney general

after that comes Solicitor general whom we also call as 2nd Law officer of the country

Solicitor general helps Attorney general in his tasks and work

that's why he is known as 2nd law officer of the country

now we will learn about 2 more terms

Imagine you have completed your law and got registered in BCI as well

and now you are willing to do something for society (social service)

In that case what can you do?

Our system says that

if a crime is committed against any individual

then it will be accepted as a crime committed against a state

For example - A committed crime against B

now B will file a case against A

but now State will handle the case of B

Why? because the crime was committed against the state

it will be considered as a crime against society

and now comes your role

You can represent state in Criminal cases and can also represent in Civil cases

lets talk about criminal cases first

you may have seen the majority of criminal cases

like if we talk about Nirbhaya Rape Case

the name of the case was Mukesh and Anrs. v. NCT Delhi (2017)

So offenders vs Victims

here the State is named as victim

so when you represent state in criminal cases means when you represent victim's side through state

then you will be known as Public Prosecutor

and if you represent state in the civil cases you will be known as Government Pleader

So basically if you represent victim's side in criminal cases you will be called as Public prosecutor

and when you represent state in civil cases you will be called as Govt. Pleader

in different sates and UT's their hierarchy is also different

their appointment system and even terms also different in different states and UT's

I guess this basic is enough for this video

So what we learned till now in this video, lets do a quick revision of it

First is Lawyer, this is the person who has completed LLB and has degree. He is known as Lawyer

The person who has studied law in England and has LLB degree that person is called as Barrister

They both has a Law degree but both of them cannot represent clients in the court

So this was the difference between them

after that comes Advocate

So the Lawyer who has cleared the Bar council exam and got registered

and has the license to practice in the court, that person is known as Advocate

So the lawyer can not represent the client where as an Advocate has the license to practice and represent the client

So this was Advocate

We have learned about 2 types of Advocate

one is Senior Advocate and the other one is AOR

Senior Advocate is a person gets designated by High court/Supreme court after years of experience and knowledge

and we learned about the special power of AOR as he is only person who can file cases in Supreme court

now we will revise about Public Prosecutor

they are the person who represents victim's side in a criminal case

now lets discuss about Advocate general

So if in any case state govt. needs representation in the court this job is done by Advocate general

and if Central govt. needs representation in the court this is the job of Attorney general to represent them

Solicitor general is the person who assists Attorney general

So this was today's video in which we discussed all these terms

I hope if you have any confusion in the beginning of the video related to these terms

it would have cleared very easily till end of the video

and now you won't call any person with wrong terms

and still if you have any confusion, you can ask me in the comments section

and you can drop any suggestion or query over there\

for more information like this you can follow me on my Instagram page @finology legal

I hope you have liked today's video, that's it for now see you in the next class Bye Bye|

Thank you