hi I'm Sarah Pic head of public
services at the Law Library of Louisiana
which is part of the Louisiana Supreme
Court in New Orleans we will be discussing
legal information versus legal advice
when we talk about legal information
versus legal advice it's important to
first start with the unauthorized
practice of law or UPL UPL exists in all
states and is actually a law that refers
specifically to a criminal or civil
prosecution for violating the
restrictions on who can practice law or
hold themselves out as a legal expert in
order to defraud a person UPL can be
really frightening to some librarians
who fear that talking about any kind of
legal matter with a patron would be UPL
and could lead to the librarian breaking
the law but the reality is that no
librarian anyone knows of has ever been
prosecuted for UPL that doesn't mean
though that we shouldn't be very careful
about that line between legal
information and legal advice in fact
it's critical to be aware of how easy it
is to be led across that eupl line from
information into advice with the
combination of a patrons urgent need and
heightened emotional state with your
desire to help and to provide answers
but in legal reference we always want to
remember our role is to be navigator an
easy way to remember this is to hold
yourself out as an expert on finding
information not on the information
itself the line between information and
advice can sometimes be hard to see
generally comes down to addressing the
question but not always answering the
question providing the resource not the
specific statute form or process guiding
to instructions for filling out forms
but not helping to fill out the forms
for your patron as I mentioned as far as
anyone knows no librarian has ever been
prosecuted for UPL
but we want to keep those ethical
considerations in mind to avoid crossing
the line one way to remember that our
ethical considerations is to remember
the ala reference guidelines the rules
of reference interactions still apply to
legal reference we know there can
sometimes be extra challenges but we
want to keep these rules in mind we want
to remain approachable show interest we
listen and ask inquiring questions we
search and we follow up keeping all
these reference guidelines in mind helps
us maintain that line between
information and advice now I'm going to
go through some helpful do tips some of
the resources I'm about to
present will be covered more in depth in
future course lessons but I
want to first emphasize the one area
where we as librarians can be a little
more directive without falling afoul
of upl laws is that it is always okay
to suggest someone should seek legal
advice many legal situations are really
complex and the patron really will be
better off if they speak to an attorney
before proceeding it's always okay to
tell them that now if they can't afford
an attorney we will be discussing in
future lessons free and low-cost
services and other ways they can get
information from a lawyer but it's
always appropriate to suggest hey you
might want to speak with a lawyer we
want to promote open access to legal
information including legal forms and
instructions we especially want to
promote access to court approved forms
remember we don't choose the forms for
them but we really want to try and get
our patrons connected to the forms the
courts have already said are okay
we want to provide resources on court
procedures, court rules and other law we
want to direct patrons to legal
treatises which are like legal textbooks,
legal dictionaries or legal
encyclopedias for explanations when
patrons come to me and ask me what does
this law mean I don't explain it to them
I give them the authoritative resource
that explains it we want to provide
options resources and referrals if you
aren't sure how to make those kinds of
connections for referrals contact your
law library for help your local law
library is there to help you and we want
to allow patrons to come to their own
conclusions and now we're gonna go
through some helpful
don't tips don't be invested in the case
outcome unfortunately you just don't
know all the facts so you really don't
want to get invested in what's gonna
happen we don't want to guess how a
judge will rule people ask me sometimes
at my library but what do you think and
I say I don't know and that's okay to
say they aren't used to hearing that
from us all the time but I really don't
know how a judge will rule that's really
the best thing we can tell them now
sometimes patrons will be really pushy
and ask us well I don't want advice I
just want to know what you think but
it's okay to say no that's advice and
they cannot do that and though as I
mentioned we know it's highly unlikely
you would ever be prosecuted for UPL
your patrons don't need to know that so
for those extra pushy patrons go ahead
and tell them it is illegal for me to
give legal advice and I will not break
the law don't fill out legal forms or
give advice and fill in them out that
really can be construed as practicing
law which is violating UPL as I
mentioned you probably won't be
prosecuted but we're our ethical
guidelines still apply don't interpret
or explain the law use those legal
dictionaries and encyclopedias instead
don't identify a specific law for the
patron's problem for them let them figure
out the law that applies we help them
and guide them we show them the table of
contents the index we help them
brainstorm keywords but again we're
navigators not experts on the info don't
advise a patron about a legal course of
action even if you disagree with the
decisions they make our job is just to
be there for them providing them the
most authoritative resources don't
recommend a specific lawyer now for this
last point though though we can't
recommend specific lawyers it is okay to
recommend agencies both nonprofit and
government and in future lessons these
types of agencies that we can refer to
are going to be covered in more depth
for example as we're going through the
pandemic right now I've been trying to
find information for my patrons many of
whom were facing very difficult legal
situations such as eviction and I have
been referring many of these people
directly out to legal aid I've been
giving them the information but I know
legal aid agencies are there for them
I'm not recommending specific lawyer but
I am saying hey if you qualify I know
that you can talk to these lawyers and
they might be able to help you so we
know there are some specific challenges
for legal reference as I mentioned your
patrons have a heightened emotional
state and you really want to help but
it's still reference so we still
maintain our boundaries while also
remaining friendly open and sympathetic
and again even if we disagree with the
patron's course of action they still
deserve judgment-free help with no
opinions from us on their choices this
last point can be difficult but remember
it's actually empowering to our patrons
when we help them make decisions for
their own life even when we disagree our
job is to show them the appropriate
legal resources but if they decide for
example they still want to use quickie
divorce calm even after we've shown them
the
free divorce forms from the local court
that's their choice to make telling them
no you can't do that you can't use
quickie divorce.com actually is crossing
the line from information into advice
and would be upl if they use quickie
divorce.com their case is dismissed
because the form was no good
hopefully by us being open and friendly
and supportive they will know they can
come back to us for further help
