Anonymous ID: cd2a4a May 1, 2019, 11:56 a.m. No.6384103   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4172

>>6384058

Apparently it is rare, and has been discussed before -

 

Is an Attorney General Addressed as "General"?

General is a military rank and form of address of a person holding that rank. Why do some journalists (print and broadcast) address the Attorney General (US and state) as “General?” Isn’t this grammatically incorrect in that in the title Attorney General, the word general is an adjective modifying/limiting the noun attorney?

– R. F.

 

Dear R. F.:

Attorneys confirm that attorneys general and solicitors general are addressed and referred to as General (Surname) in courtroom settings. He says in federal and state supreme and appellate court proceedings you will see references in court documents to attorney generals as General (Surname). This makes sense

A law librarian at the Library of Congress did some research on this at my request and confirms in oral arguments, court documents record the Attorney General and Solicitor General as "Gen. (full name), Esq."

 

UPDATE: I've heard from a the offices of three state attorneys general, and to quote the Executive Assistant of the Attorney General of Montana: "Your e-mail asks a number of questions regarding the preferred form of address for the current Montana Attorney General. “Dear Mr. Bullock” is the commonly-used and accepted form of address for the current attorney general, in any situation. “General” is rarely used, and then by those who are not aware of our customary practice."

To me it seems that addressing an attorney general as "General (Name)" an an internal practice within the legal profession. It makes sense in the context of a courtroom to identify the role of an Attorney General in some concise way to separate him from others addressed "Mr.". But outside the courtroom when (as happens in DC pretty often) there are Army, Marine Corp, and Air Force Generals in the room – it doesn’t. Further there is a wide range of offices with ‘general duties” … Solicitor general, surgeon general, inspector general …. None of them is ever addressed as “General”.

 

http://www.formsofaddress.info/attorney_general.html