To the Legal Professionals:
Has your employer talked to you about what "giving legal advice" means? Sometimes it is called unauthorized practice of the law. Is the ethical or not? What activities would be considered giving legal advice? Does the attorney discuss this with a new employee? Is there a difference between what a "legal administrative assitant/legal secretary" can talk about with a client and what a "paralegal/legal assistant" can talk about?
To Students: Read the professionals' comments. Ask questions that come to mind. Please don't repeat questions that others have asked. I will be flexible with your grade as to comments on the blog.
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27 comments:
After reading the text, I think that I have come up with a clear enough answer. It is not ethical to give legal advice to anyone unless you are and attorney or lawyer. However, if a lawyer gives you strict instuctions to pass on to a client that would be considered "legal advice" it is okay. If a client requests information from you, it is your duty to tell them that you are not an attorney and therefore cannot give advice but will look into the matter and get the information from your attorney and pass the information along.
How long does it usually take if a client asks an assistant a question pertaining to legal advice to ask the attorney and get back to the client? Is it hard to get ahold of the attorney right away?
How long do cases normally last? Quite awhile? Are attorneys in the office a lot or are they not there often? What happens if a client wants answers right away what do you do in that case?
Attorneys are the only employee in a law office that can give legal advice. Legal professionals can relay specific instructions if told to do so by the lawyer.
I think that I would be a little apprehensive to relay legal advice to a client, even if the attorney said that it was ok. Especially if the information is complex. Do you have to do this often, and if you do not feel comfortable, can you tell the attorney you would rather not?
I would also feel a little uncomfortable speaking to a client about his/her case questions. Are there times you feel uncomfortable speaking to them about ther personal case??
Do you ever find it hard not to give out your advice about cases? Like if something similar happened to you, you would tell them what you did?
Are there every times when you feel like a client is being too open with you about there situation. Has a client ever pressured you to answer legal questions.
I do not think I would ever feel comfortable even relaying advice from the attorney. Suppose I had misunderstood the attorney and passed on the message incorrectly. I think that would be bad for all parties involved. Have any of the professionals had this happen to them?
Can you give personal advice to a client about their case; from the knowledge you gained from a previous case?
What would you do if a friend or family member was asking for advice? Would it still be considered unethical to answer questions for them even though it would be personal with them? Is it never okay to give legal advice?
I seen someone else asked aobut family and friends. What if it is for your self like you are working for a firm and you know all the "ins and outs" can you use that to your advatage or is it best not to.
I think I have a good idea on what is ethical and what is not regarding giving legal advice to the client or not. I think it would be in my best interest to take a message and pass it on to the attorney to get back to the client.
If you are not a licensed attorney you should not give legal advice to anyone. If you are going to do a legal document for yourself, such as a Will, you should have it reviewed by an attorney before you sign it.
hi,
i understand that it is unethical to give advice to a client if you are not an attorney, but what if the client is a relative or close friend and they ask your opinion? should you recommend they ask the attorney or is it alright to give them your advice?
It's unethical to give legal advice, the only person that can do that would be an attorney or lawyer. Counsel given to clients telling them how to proceed in their case is legal advice, and the legal admininstrative assistant should let the client know the he or she cannot give legal advice the only time that this is done is when the attorney gives the information to the assistant with specific instructions. The attorney will let the assistant know about legal advice once he or she starts working for the law firm.
Where do you draw the line on ethical and non ethical advice? You cant be giving out legal advice about a case but can you give ideas on what they could do?
I was just wondering if it was ok if you tell them that it is unethical. If they just wanted to know a little information and you would tell them. Is that ok?
I would feel weird if a client wanted me to answer questions for them, and I couldn't. I wouldn't want them to freak out on me.
I would not feel comfortable giving out legal advice. It is the responsibility of the attorney or lawyer. However, if you are passing along information that the attorney has given you that is ok.
I think that if I was suppose to pass along information to a client that I would take notes of what to say because I would feel that I would be giving wrong information. Just so there is no room for mix up.
I have a question regarding giving legal advice. I read earlier in this blog that that attorney addresses this with you as a new employee at their firm. Can any of our legal professionals contributing to the blog tell us all a little bit about how that happened for them personally, and what the attorney said?
Has any of the legal professionals told their employee/attorney that they refused to tell the client legal advice that he/she told you to tell them? And how was their reaction to this? Were they upset with you?
There is a difference between legal administrative assistant and paralegal. From my understanding, a paralegal may give legal advice...but a legal administrative may not! And unauthorized practive of law would be such a situation, or like the online content giving advice to a friend if you are not authorized to do so.
It is not ethical to give legal advice to anyone unless you are and attorney or lawyer. However, if a lawyer gives you (the legal assistant) strict instructions to pass on to a client that would be considered legal advice. In that situation, that would be ok. Never give out information to a client if they request it. You are not the attorney so you do not have the right to pass out that legal advice and you would need to tell the client you are not able to give that advice.
Are there strict guidelines on what is considered legal and non-legal advice, or is that common sense? I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question!
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