state attorney, noun phrase

Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Translation of Afrikaans staatsprokureur; cf. attorney.
1. In historical contexts. With initial capitals. In the old Boer Republics: the state legal advisor, a position equivalent to that of Minister of Justice.
1877 F. Jeppe Tvl Bk Almanac & Dir. (1976) 46State Attorney — Dr. W.J. Leyds. £1,200.
1897 F.R. Statham S. Afr. as It Is 306It had not been sufficiently born in mind that Mr. Justice Gregorowski, who previously held the post of State-Attorney in the Orange Free State, is a member of the English Bar.
1899 Volkstem 5 Oct. 1Judge Herzog, Judge Stuart and ex-State Attorney De Villiers have left for the front.
1902 E. Hobhouse Brunt of War 312Nothing can more fitly close this slight outline of the tale of the women’s sufferings than the passages which follow, culled from the Report of General J.C. Smuts, late State Attorney.
1946 T. Macdonald Ouma Smuts 29It was a Godsend when her husband at the age of twenty-eight was appointed State Attorney by President Kruger, and she was glad to leave the mining town and find sanctuary in Pretoria.
1974 K. Griffith Thank God We Kept Flag Flying 19In Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, President Kruger, ably advised by the young State Attorney, Jan Smuts, noted Queen Victoria’s proclamation summoning the British Parliament and calling out the British Army’s reserves.
2. An attorney employed by the government to protect its interests in any legal issue that may arise.
1956 Act 3 in Stat. of Union 13‘State Attorney’ means the officer appointed under paragraph (a) of sub-section (2) of section two of the State Attorney Act, 1925 (Act No. 25 of 1925).
1981 W.A. Joubert Law of S. Afr. XIV. 408The functions of the office of the state attorney and of its branches are the performance in any court or in any part of the Republic of such work on behalf of the government of the Republic as is by law, practice or custom performed by attorneys, notaries and conveyancers or by parliamentary agents.
1985 H. Hammann in Sunday Times 6 Oct. 2The decision to condone certain procedural actions by the applicant was taken by council and the instructing State Attorney.
1989 Cape Times 4 Sept. 7Evidence is being led by advocate Mr E Bertelsmann, briefed by the state attorney for the liquidators.
With initial capitals. In the old Boer Republics: the state legal advisor, a position equivalent to that of Minister of Justice.
An attorney employed by the government to protect its interests in any legal issue that may arise.
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