PROCTOR (abbreviated from OF. procurator, from Lat. procurator, manager, from proeurare, to manage, from pro, before, for curare, to care, from cars, care). In its legal sense, originally one of the body of men who had the exclusive privilege of appearing in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts of England; now, any attorney who practices in either of these courts or in a probate court. The former proctors were ad mitted to practice only by a commission issued in the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury. A proctor might have an advocate do the actual pleading or trial work for him, but he alone could bring and conduct the proceedings in his own name.
On the transfer of the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts over the probate of wills, the administration of estates, and matrimonial causes, to the probate and divorce divisions, the proctors practicing in the former courts were empowered to appear in all the courts of equity and common law in England. In 1877 the Solicitors Act provided that all solicitors should have power to practice as proctors on their ad mission without further examination. Upon the
abolition of the old judicial system of England by the Judicature Acts (q.v.), the authority to practice in both the new courts was given to both proctors and solicitors. Therefore, in Eng land to-day, the old legal distinction between proctors and other members of the bar has been abolished.
in both England and the United States the title proctor is still applied to prac titioners in the surrogate. probate, and admi ralty courts, merely as a matter of description, and without any special legal signification. See ATTORNEY ; SOLICITOR LAWYER.
By other uses of the term in England. it is applied to the representatives of the parochial clergy in convocation (q.v.), and to the officers charged with the maintenance of discipline among undergraduates in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.