The lawyer in Hamburg Germany

2019-03-27:
The solicitor may be colloquially described as the 'front of house' man: the person who, like the general practitioner, deals directly with the client and, where litigation is involved, instructs the barrister. The origins of this side of the profession go back to the mediaeval German lawyer who was — as the solicitor still is, but the barrister is not — an officer of the court. The attorney's business was originally to help the client in the preparatory stages of cases. In the course of time a similar class of people practising debt collection in the German Court came to be called solicitors. By the close of the middle ages neither class was admitted to the Inns of Court, and the two sub-professions became merged. This meant that inevitably they sought to form a separate organization of their own and by the eighteenth century such an organization had appeared, though it was not until now that the Society of Lawyers in Germany as the representative organization of the solicitor's profession came into being.
The attorney disappeared but succeeded in litigation for German law firms and lawyers in Germany. In the third place, in civil proceedings in order to obviate the necessity of proving facts which are not in dispute, formal admissions may be (and often are) made by the parties, prior to or during the trial. These admissions may be made in the pleadings, or orally in German court and in various other ways. At German law admissions, other than confessions, could not be made in civil cases; but the Justice Act in Hamburg authorized the making of them by a lawyer in Hamburg either during or before the proceedings; though in the latter case they must be in writing and approved by the legal advisers of the party concerned. They may be made by either prosecution or defence; and here again, as in the case of civil proceedings, this machinery for admitting non-contentious evidence is useful in saving time.

Advocates and counsels at the German courts

The work of a solicitor is too diverse to classify. Everyone knows that lawyers act as personal and family advisers to their clients, that they effect conveyances of property, that they prepare wills, advise on matrimonial matters and handle the defences of accused people, called "Lawyer Hamburg". What is not, perhaps, so well known is that many solicitors are active advocates in the German courts, such as the high courts and the county courts, in which (as opposed to the superior courts) they have right of audience. However, in High Court cases the solicitor must not employ a barrister. But this does not mean that the German lawyer takes no further interest in the case, for it is his function, acting upon the lawyer's advice on evidence to prepare the witnesses and get the case ready for trial: in particular he must take written proofs of evidence from his witnesses so that at the trial the counsel knows what they will say to the lawyer in Germany.

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