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

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner 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 ...

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. Avoués 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. Avoués were ministerial officers, appointed by the ''

Garde des sceaux The title keeper of the seals or equivalent is used in several contexts, denoting the person entitled to keep and authorize use of the great seal of a given country. The title may or may not be linked to a particular cabinet or ministerial offic ...

'' in France, and were remunerated according to an official fee schedule. There existed two types of avoués: ''avoués de première instance'' and the ''avoués d'appel''. The former were abolished in 1971.{{Cite book, url=https://www.senat.fr/rap/r13-580/r13-5801.pdf, title=Rapport d'information fait au nom de la commission des lois constitutionnelles, de législation, du suffrage universel, du Règlement et d'administration générale (1) sur la mise en œuvre de la loi réformant la procédure d'appel, last=Gélard, first=Patrice, year=2014, language=fr The latter, who appeared in the ''

cour d'appel A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

'', were abolished in 2012, when their profession was subsumed with that of the ''avocat''.

References

Legal professions French legal terminology Law of Belgium Historical legal occupations