why do lawyers wear something like wig when they in court?
2007-03-20 01:18:52 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Until the seventeenth century, lawyers were expected to appear in court with clean, short hair and beards.
Wigs made their first appearance in a courtroom purely and simply because that’s what was being worn outside it; the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) made wigs essential wear for polite society.
The judiciary, however, took some time to convince; portraits of judges from the early 1680s still show judges defiantly sporting their own natural hair, and wigs do not seem to have been adopted wholesale until 1685.
The reign of George III (1760-1820) saw wigs gradually go out of fashion. By the end of the century they were mainly worn by bishops, coachmen and the legal profession - and even bishops were given permission to stop wearing wigs in the 1830s.
Judges wore only full-bottomed wigs until the 1780s, when the less formal, and smaller, bob-wig, with frizzed sides rather than curls, and a short tail or queue at the back, was adopted for civil trials.
Wigs are worn by barristers in courts of the UK and the Commonwealth as the result of this tradition, but not in all courts. Solicitors who have rights of audience continue to wear their stuff gowns without wigs, except in certain countries where there is a fused profession (e.g. British overseas territories).
2007-03-20 01:43:40 · answer #1 · answered by Doethineb 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Caicos Turkey has the right answer, but I just wanted to add that the only lawyer in the United States who (sometimes) wears a wig is the Solicitor General of the United States. He's the lawyer that is in charge of arguing the United States' position on cases before the Supreme Court. It is tradition for him to dress in colonial-era garb. Some Solicitors' General have worn wigs, some have not, but they all wear neat old-school lawyer clothes from the 1700's
2007-03-21 17:06:23 · answer #2 · answered by tivodan1116 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The wigs is a symbol ;House of Pariliament,the law Lords of Englands and Wales.
2007-03-20 08:37:21 · answer #3 · answered by James S55$$ where I give you ME. 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
only under the British system...wear a wig in America and the judge will fine you
2007-03-20 08:23:31 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
uuuu.....they don't. Sometimes the judges do I think but only because its like traditional or somethine.
2007-03-20 21:08:14 · answer #5 · answered by MiSSkASiA♥ 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋