2.1 Legal Advice

As you learned in the last module, there are no definitions of legal advice or legal information. From the legislation and case law, we can come up with a more practical definition of legal advice that comes down to both actions and language. So, what do we mean by actions? Well, actions that can be considered giving legal advice include:

• Interpreting and applying the law
• Researching a legal issue
• Giving a legal opinion
• Recommending next steps
• Referring to certain professionals
• Preparing legal documents
• Representing someone

When we are talking about legal advice, language is also important. You have to think about perceptions. How is your answer going to be perceived by the person asking the question? What are their expectations? So, language that is indicative of giving legal advice include:

• “In your case, you should …”
• “According to the law, you …”
• “In my opinion …”
•  “A judge would say …”
• “You are right …”
• “I would recommend …”
• “You just need to fill out this court form …”
• “This document says that …”
• “You should tell the judge …”
• “What you are doing is legal/illegal …”