Bwahaha!
No, but I can give you a bunch of cases where lawyers have been sued because they unwittingly established a lawyer-client relationship. Check out any law school casebook on Professional Responsibility – this is one of those things they drill into your head over and over and over until it sticks.
Email and message boards are untested waters, but given the history of this area, a prudent lawyer will exercise caution before dispensing advice willy-nilly.
Oh, big bad lawyer wants to wave her dick around. Boy, am I ever impressed that you know how to pick on a poor newsgroup poster. Anyway, you know what, maybe you are right in your legal knowledge, but that doesn’t make you a decent person. Go hang out with your lawyer friends, BBJ, and leave us humans alone.
PS It would sure suck to have a profession that required me to append my SDMB posts with a fucking legal disclaimer. Nice life.
Oh, I dunno about that. The first time I saw Dewey Cheatem Undhow post his disclaimer, I was a little surprised. Now that I understand the problem better, seeing it makes me feel like I’m reading a post from a guy who knows what he’s talking about.
Wow Robert, who pissed in your CornFlakes [sup]TM[/sup] this morning?
I am not a lawyer. I am not your lawyer. Any references in this post to pissing or CornFlakes are meant purely in the jocular sense and in no way constitute a legal relationship between us.
Actually, it wasn’t that bad.
Allow me to translate:
You are right.
You’re right about something I know nothing about.
You’re correcting an error on a message board dedicated to fighting ignorance.
I’m incredibly insecure in facing the fact that I know next to nothing about this.
So I will attack you for being right.
All lawyers are bad people.
I am not a lawyer.
Therefore, I am a good person, depsite not having the smarts that God gave a piece of driftwood.
PS: I am incredibly jealous of your life, filled as it is with actual knowledge. Therefore, I will attack you again.
Hope my translation of RobertP’s post helps!
- Rick
Well, I’d still like to see a bit of proof that this is illegal, or dangerous. Does the common man think advice off the internet should be taken as truth from a professional, and then does this common man then make decisions based on the aforementioned information that causes him harm? And if there is a legal relationship going on, then can the client sue because you posted their confidential information on the internet? Seems a bit too fishy to me, although I’d still like to know the truth. I’m a professional accountant, so I’d first off make sure I know what the advice I give is, but I in no way feel that I’ve ever consider a client, as I believe I need to receive some sort of benefit if a contract exists. Now if I’ve been negligent in my info, and again this common man acted on this info, I think he’d have a hard time proving it, but I could be wrong.
Not only that, but the op clearly asked for opinions in the link. She did not ask for legal opinions, so again, I fail to see the reason for this pit. Every opinion I give is not a legal opinion, as that puts a totally different connotation on the word. Sorry, still can’t justify this, in my not so legal opinion. Not only that, but I fail to see why there is no disclaimer in this thread. Seems to me as a lawyer, when you attack someone’s character there’s a legal term for it, and I feel I’d never again trust ER Nurses opinions, as she has little legal knowledge, and a professional lawyer said so. Not only that, but since it’s a written attack on her character, with no disclaimer, I again have to conclude that this can be taken as a professional assessment from my lawyer.
Um, I believe the original OP went something like:
“I have a legal problem and was wanting some opinions.” to paraphrase.
What sort of opinion did you think she wanted? Artistic? Religious?
Any opinion you give on an interpretation of law is, by definition, a legal opinion. It probably isn’t a professional opinion though, unless you’re a licensed attorney.
From the OP of the original thread:
Seems like at least partly a request for a legal opinion to me…
The word you’re looking for is defamation:
Specifically, libel:
As you can see, one of the tests is that the characterization has to be false. As is it readily apparent that ER Nurse gave incorrect legal advice, it seems to fail that test.
Also, while we’re at it, as far as I know (although I am not a lawyer) communication is not privileged if made in the presence of others, but I’m sure one of our resident attorneys will be along shortly if I’m wrong.
You know what’s great about this board, there’s some great, knowledgeable attorneys on here. People like **Bricker, Dewey, Jodi etc **…But then you get someone pulling stuff out of his/her butt and it almostsounds like they know what they’re talking about. I worry about someone getting the two confused.
I’d hate for the lawyer residents on here to stop posting about the law. But for someone–including lawyers–to state “what the law is” when it isn’t could lead to potentially bad things. For instance, what if someone posted a question on whether they had a claim. Assume their claim was good. What if some person who can use the term “statute of limitations” tells this person that the statute has run. Assume this post sounds intelligent, throws around a statute or two and that no one contradicts it. That person might give up his/her claim. Is it reasonable to rely on that? No. But it can happen. However, whats’ more likely is that someone will spout what they think the law is, someone will believe it and will pass it on as good information. Kind of like an urban legend. That is not fighting ignorance.
.
The Texas Bar’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee has a whole home page devoted to this question, among others. And Texas is not dissimilar from other states.