Disbar, to degrade from the rank of barrister-at-law. This power is in England reposed in the benches of the four Inns of Court. As the courts of law require that every barrister, before he is allowed to practise, must have been admitted to that office by one of the Inns of Court, so they will refuse to hear any one who has been deprived of his rank by the same authority. The power is rarely exercised, and only when the conduct of the offending party has been grossly irregular, one case of disbarring having occurred in 1862, and another in 1874. In the United States, the power to disbar is vested in the courts which have power to admit counsellors and attorneys to the bar.
In Scotland, the power to disbar rests in the Faculty of Advocates (see ADVOCATES).