Re:We Are All Lawyers Now – The Rise of the Legalish
by vonmoltke on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @10:08AM
(#18283478)
Why can that create an enforceable attorney-client relationship for a lawyer, but equivalent medical advice cannot create an enforceable doctor-patient relationship?
Re:We Are All Lawyers Now – The Rise of the Legalish
by rayiner on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @10:27AM
(#18283619)
Lawyer-client relationships often involve just the giving of advice. It would be odd for a doctor-client relationship to not include examination and treatment.
Re:We Are All Lawyers Now – The Rise of the Legalish
by pmiller2 on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @12:21PM
(#18284742)
This is a totally valid point, but it does make me wonder: why don’t psychotherapists behave in a similar manner to lawyers with this type of disclaimer? Maybe because it’s not a therapy session unless you sit down for an hour in a private office?
Re:We Are All Lawyers Now – The Rise of the Legalish
by 131012 on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @01:35PM
(#18285515)
People get self-aware of the dangers related to their profession. We get pretty crazy about data leak, when nobody else really cares. I'm pretty sure the psychotherapist you just talked to at a dinner party has one or two diagnostics on your mental health and has an opinion on your relation with your parents, and lawyers always think about what can get you sued. So they get really careful when there's a legal risk for them.
Re:We Are All Lawyers Now – The Rise of the Legalish
by pnw_hazor on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @02:25PM
(#18286028)
The rules for establishing attorney-client relationships are different than the rules for establishing a patient-doctor relationship.
And, the duties and responsibilities of a lawyer to their client are different than for doctors.
They could be made the same but that would require new/more laws.
Re:We Are All Lawyers Now – The Rise of the Legalish
by gamblor956 on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @03:31PM
(#18286625)
Not to be pedantic, but it's not enough to have a conversation. You have to apply the law to the specific facts of the putative client's circumstances in such a way that it could actually be reasonably perceived as actionable legal advice.
Just offering general statements about the law, or hypotheticals, like we're doing, on this board, isn't enough.
Lawyers do that because enforceable lawyer-client relationships can be created based just on a conversation, and whether there is one or not turns on whether the non-lawyer thought there was one. The creation of a lawyer-client relationship, in turn, has knock-on effects. A lawyer can be sued for malpractice based on that verbal advice, can be disqualified from taking a case adverse to the “client,” etc. Also, state bars are extremely humorless about unlicensed out-of-state practice. Just the appearance of giving legal advice in a state where you aren’t licensed can get you in trouble.