Catalogue description Records of the Official Solicitor

The office of the Official Solicitor is derived historically from the post of solicitor to the suitors' fund, which became the office of Official Solicitor to the High Court of Chancery by order of the Lord Chancellor in 1871. In 1875, following the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873, a further order of the Lord Chancellor provided that an officer to be styled 'The Official Solicitor to the Supreme Court of Judicature' should be attached to the Supreme Court to perform all such duties in relation to that court as the Lord Chancellor shall direct. The Official Solicitor to the Court of Chancery was, in fact, appointed to this new post and thereafter served all the divisions of the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

In this capacity the Official Solicitor acts as a servant of the court and may at any time be called upon by a judge to carry out an investigation or to assist the court to see that justice is done between the parties. He is appointed to act where, if this were not done, there would be either a denial or miscarriage of justice. He represents, in particular, the interests of infants and persons of unsound mind, especially in guardianship and wardship proceedings and in matrimonial causes. He frequently undertook the receivership of estates of cases of mental incapacity, but this function passed to the Court of Protection in 1983 and the Public Trust Office in 1987.

The official solictor may also be appointed to act as judicial trustee under the Judicial Trustees Act 1896. He deals with applications for bail made on behalf of poor prisoners and keeps under constant review the cases of persons committed to prison for contempt of court and, whenever appropriate, may apply to the court for their release. He may also apply to the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a prisoner against whom an order is made under the Extradition Act 1870 or the Fugitive Offenders Act 1881.

Until 1919 the Official Solicitor paid his staff from a lump sum fixed by the Treasury but from April of that year all the expenses of his department including remuneration were charged to the Supreme Court and receipts appropriated to its vote.