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Comment by guelo | Hacker News Reader

> you can be regarded by some as taking some of the responsibility for the advice you think you haven't given

That sounds bogus to me, has anyone heard of any lawsuits of that type? That is, someone who is not a lawyer and is not presenting themselves as a lawyer being sued for giving bad legal advice?

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If I understand correctly, no client-attorney relationship is established just by sharing your opinion of legal matters with someone.[1]

(edit: The rules are different if you are an attorney.)

(2nd edit: This debate seems to be about whether one can be held legally accountable if someone acts on your naive legal opinions and whether it's a good idea to share your legal opinions when--admit it--you really have no idea what you're talking about.[2] Then again, is it a good idea to follow free legal advice provided by a non-lawyer?)

[1] http://meta.answers.onstartups.com/questions/113/do-i- need-to-add-a-disclaimer-when-i-answer-a-question-on-this-site

[2]http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/293/A...

So if I understand correctly, according to this, nirvana can offer advice without bothering to add any kinds of disclaimers (although he did), and everyone thinks that's completely fine, and can have no possible repercussions.

On the other hand, jsprinkles and I, when we offer comments about our personal experiences, and pass on to nirvana advice that we received from our actual lawyers, we're somehow in the wrong.

Just wanted to be clear. I will now be much more literal about the advice I got from my lawyers and comment no further on these matters.

  > Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
  > for you are crunchy, and taste good with
  > ketchup.

I am passing on, almost verbatim, the advice I was given most strenuously. Included in that advice was the comment that not everything in legal circles passes the "That sounds right" test.

Certainly in this case, no, I can't quote cases where this has happened. But, you know, like, I'm not a lawyer. There are things that happen in legal circles that I don't know about, but which I have been given legal advice about.

So feel free to ignore it all and take a chance that you're right, and the advice given to me was misplaced. Heaven forbid that you should think I'm advising you.

I'll reiterate this for the benefit of context at this very location, but I have personal experience with a very similar scenario that I am not legally permitted to discuss; it was a situation of unsolicited advice resulting in consequences for people. I cannot say who. I think you'll find if it's a common experience, most people are (wisely) not going to discuss it.

As someone else has asked you already, provide an example you were NOT personally involved in.

Also: I doubt that you can talk about the specifics of the case, but there should be nothing stopping you from quoting the court case so we could look it up ourselves.

Incidentally, it appears that are providing us with legal advise here. The legal advise is that we shouldn't provide legal advise.

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