Lawyers vs. Attorneys: What Are the Differences?
Accidents and incidents happen every day, and it can be difficult to impossible to predict when such instances might occur. Life is full of risk. All you can hope for is that if you do get into an accident, you don’t have to pay for the highly expensive medical costs on your own.
The easiest way to ensure you get the compensation you deserve? Hire legal help for your case. However, if you’re not familiar with the basics — like the difference between lawyers vs. attorneys — you could have trouble finding the right help.
What are the actual differences between these two often interchanged words? Which do you need for your case? Read on and we’ll walk you through what you need to know.
Understanding Lawyers vs. Attorneys
If you’re looking for legal help in your area, the first thing you’ll likely notice is different listings that describe lawyers, attorneys, and professionals with other kinds of titles.
Understanding the difference between lawyer and attorney in this instance can be essential.
A lawyer is anyone who has passed the bar and can legally take on work within a state. These are law school graduates who have shown that they know their stuff.
What is an attorney?
The term itself comes from the Old French language, where it could be translated more or less to mean ‘a person whom something is turned over to,’ in this case, someone’s legal needs.
An attorney, in an official sense, is someone who takes this knowledge of the law and actually uses it in practice, in a courtroom. While this is our most traditional idea of an attorney, there are actually a number of legal professionals who never set foot in a courtroom itself.
They practice as counsels, legal aids, supervisors, and so forth. While these professionals could call themselves lawyers, it wouldn’t be completely accurate to call themselves attorneys.
A Nuanced Depiction
It’s important to remember that while differences between lawyers and attorneys exist, these differences are often more nuanced than public discussion tends to take on.
In conversing with the general public, you’ll find that most people use these two terms interchangeably. Even those who work in the legal profession might use them in this manner, as they’ll be used to discussing these kinds of things with the general public.
It can be helpful to understand the difference between these terms to get a firm grasp on what it is you’re looking for when hiring an attorney. However, it’s also helpful to remember that just because someone lists themselves as a lawyer, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not an attorney.
They might just be choosing the word choice that they think will appeal to the largest group of people. You can certainly ask when you sit down with them, but it isn’t something you should have to worry heavily about.
Hiring an Attorney
Have you been injured in some way and are in need of compensation? You’ll need to get legal help to ensure you get the full compensation total that you deserve.
Understanding the difference between lawyers vs. attorneys can help to ensure that you aren’t confused when working through this process.
Need more legal advice and info? Looking to hire an attorney for your case? Give us a call anytime for assistance.