In France and Belgium, an was formerly a jurist and a ministerial officer charged with performing the preparation () of cases in front of courts. Their functions were roughly equivalent to that of

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

s in common law systems, but only in the context of litigation. The office was abolished in Belgium in 1970 and in France in 2012. Traditionally in France, there existed a distinction between the oral pleading of a case, which was the function of the ''avocat'', and the preparation of a case, which was considered a ministerial function. were charged with the latter. Their tasks included the drafting of the statement of claim and of other documents, the distribution of the judgment, and other matters of procedure. were ministerial officers, appointed by the '' Garde des sceaux'' in France, and were remunerated according to an official fee schedule. There existed two types of : and the . The former were abolished in 1971. The latter, who appeared in cases before the Appeals court in France, were abolished in 2012, when their profession was subsumed with that of the .{{page needed, date=August 2024

References

French legal terminology Law of Belgium Historical legal occupations