§34-3-6. Who may practice as attorneys.

(a) Only such persons as are regularly licensed have authority to practice law.

(b) For the purposes of this chapter, the practice of law is defined as follows:

Whoever,

(1) In a representative capacity appears as an advocate or draws papers, pleadings, or documents, or performs any act in connection with proceedings pending or prospective before a court or a body, board, committee, commission, or officer constituted by law or having authority to take evidence in or settle or determine controversies in the exercise of the judicial power of the state or any subdivision thereof; or

(2) For a consideration, reward, or pecuniary benefit, present or anticipated, direct or indirect, advises or counsels another as to secular law, or draws or procures or assists in the drawing of a paper, document, or instrument affecting or relating to secular rights; or

(3) For a consideration, reward, or pecuniary benefit, present or anticipated, direct or indirect, does any act in a representative capacity in behalf of another tending to obtain or secure for such other the prevention or the redress of a wrong or the enforcement or establishment of a right; or

(4) As a vocation, enforces, secures, settles, adjusts, or compromises defaulted, controverted, or disputed accounts, claims or demands between persons with neither of whom he or she is in privity or in the relation of employer and employee in the ordinary sense;

is practicing law.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any person, firm, or corporation from attending to and caring for his, her, or its own business, claims, or demands, nor from preparing abstracts of title, certifying, guaranteeing, or insuring titles to property, real or personal, or an interest therein, or a lien or encumbrance thereon, but any such person, firm, or corporation engaged in preparing abstracts of title, certifying, guaranteeing, or insuring titles to real or personal property are prohibited from preparing or drawing or procuring or assisting in the drawing or preparation of deeds, conveyances, mortgages, and any paper, document, or instrument affecting or relating to secular rights, which acts are hereby defined to be an act of practicing law, unless such person, firm, or corporation shall have a proprietary interest in such property; however, any such person, firm, or corporation so engaged in preparing abstracts of title, certifying, guaranteeing, or insuring titles shall be permitted to prepare or draw or procure or assist in the drawing or preparation of simple affidavits or statements of fact to be used by such person, firm, or corporation in support of its title policies, to be retained in its files and not to be recorded.

(d) Only a person who is a citizen of the United States or, if not a citizen of the United States, a person who is legally present in the United States with appropriate documentation from the federal government, may be licensed to practice law in this state.

(Code 1852, §729; Code 1867, §816; Code 1876, §780; Code 1886, §853; Code 1896, §579; Code 1907, §2983; Code 1923, §6248; Acts 1927, No. 573, p. 669, §1; Acts 1931, No. 493, p. 606, §1; Code 1940, T. 46, §42; Acts 1949, No. 167, p. 194, §1; Act 2011-170, p. 329, §3.)