Doing your own legal work without the qualifications

September 7, 2006 4:19 PM

Do you need to be a legally qualified person to send out legal letters (e.g. cease and desist etc) on behalf of yourself or someone else? Can you set up a business called Frednerk Legal Services if you don't have formal legal skills? What is the minimum you need to give any legal advice to people?

Also can anyone just take one of those free legal letter templates, fill it out and send it away?

posted by vizsla to law & government (9 comments total)

States regulate the practice of law. California is very strict about practicing law without a license. See, e.g. SB 894 (2005). Separate from practicing law without a license is doing work for yourself using "self-help tools" like Nolo press books, or writing and distributing such "self-help" materials. This is considered legal (though the argument was once made, unsuccessfully, that Nolo promoted the unlawful practice of law without a license).
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 4:36 PM on September 7, 2006

More on the Nolo story.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 4:41 PM on September 7, 2006

Corrected second link.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 4:41 PM on September 7, 2006

You are allowed to represent yourself in legal matters without being a lawyer. You're just not allowed to claim you're a lawyer or to represent anyone but yourself.
posted by kindall at 4:43 PM on September 7, 2006

IANAL, but it is my understand that you can do your own legal work without problems in most cases. However, if you start "representing" other people, you're in for some legal trouble and possibly a nice trip to PMITA prison. Your best bet, contact a law professor or student at your local law school and ask.
posted by ChazB at 4:43 PM on September 7, 2006

You have a right under common law to do your own legal work. You can sue people, represent yourself in court, prepare your own documents for contracts or divorces, and basically do anything that you might otherwise hire a lawyer to do. You can fill out a legal letter template on your own behalf, no problem.

On behalf of other people, however, the law strictly limits what you're allowed to do, especially if you charge money for it. As far as I know, every state and the federal government requires people who give legal advice or prepare legal documents for others for a fee to be certified by the bar association in that jurisdiction. You should look up the specific laws for your state, but in most states, even a lawyer certified by an out of state bar association is guilty of practicing law without a license if s/he charges money for legal work in the state, unless s/he gets special permission from the court. The penalties for practicing law without a license vary from state to state, but they often include jail time.

In some jurisdictions, non-lawyers can offer legal assistance on certain matters so long as they don't charge money for it. For example, prison inmates in many jurisdictions are allowed to prepare briefs and appeals on behalf of other inmates without running afoul of the law, so long as they don't charge for their services.

Basically, bar associations have created a legally enforced cartel, preventing people who haven't gone to law school and paid to take the bar exam from offering legal advice. There are plenty of paralegals and other non-lawyer types who spend all day writing documents and doing other legal work and are highly skilled at various aspects of legal practice, but if they tried to do those jobs without the "supervision" of a lawyer, they'd be breaking the law. The bar associations are very, very strict about going after people who practice law without their approval because they're protecting the livelihoods of their members by keeping out the competition. So basically, you have to have a law degree and pass a bar exam in order to give legal advice or assistance to others for money.

I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice; please don't send me to jail.
posted by Amy Phillips at 4:44 PM on September 7, 2006

You don't need to be a lawyer to represent parties before many federal agencies, but there may be other requirements. For example, to practice before the US Patent Office you have to pass an exam and have some sort of scientific background.

In some states, a nonlawyer can represent people in small claims court if they don't charge fees.
posted by footnote at 5:33 PM on September 7, 2006

It strongly matters where you are, but as has been said earlier, if you are NOT charging for your services, you often can "represent" others. Even in very serious cases, this is allowed. For example, a broke friend of mine was charged with assault. As the crown didn't ask for more than 6 months jailtime, he was denied legal assistance as per Ontario law (sad, but true). So I checked and discovered I could represent him in court as his agent (section 800 of the CCC). Most of the various judges didn't believe it, but the prosecution eventually told them I was right. For those wondering, the case was a smashing success with my "client" coming out of the trial with only a Peace Bond (ie: An agreement with the judge he would be a nice guy for a year and the court would forget the case existed).

I wouldn't be surprised that if you were to spend the time looking for it, there were "loopholes", as it were, that you can exploit like this. But in all cases, I'm sure they will prevent you from claiming you are a lawyer and will prevent you from charging for services.
posted by shepd at 6:18 PM on September 7, 2006

The two you have marked as favorites (Amy and Claudia) are dead on--IANAL but I am a lay member of our local Bar Association Grievance and Discipline Committee. Based an 4 years experience I can assure you that any effort to represent others or offer specific legal advice, for a fee, is strictly regulated. While we would not see lay people who are violating this (after all, we only regulate lawyers) I have seen enough cases where lawyers who have lost their licensed or "supervised" non lawyers to know that practicing any type of law involving others is a road filled with hazards. Also, I can't imagine a context that you could do any filings, etc. on behalf of others. I also would not want to incure the possibility of civil liabilty for misrepresentation--you could not even get malpractice insurance.
posted by rmhsinc at 6:27 PM on September 7, 2006