What is legal advice? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_advice
There is a line between giving legal advice and providing legal information.
Legal representation, counseling, and advising is what attorneys provide. Everyone gets what it means to have legal representation. Legal counseling is clearer but not as clear as legal representation. Legal advice is where the water gets murky.
I spoke with a nurse recently who indicated that he relied on the "legal advice" provided to him by a State Nursing Board investigator to his detriment. FYI: State Nursing Board investigators are not attorneys. According to the nurse the State Nursing Board investigator "assured" him that this case wasn't a big deal and it would probably go away. The nurse also says he took the advice of the investigator, did what the investigator told him to do, and the nurse feels betrayed by the actions of the investigator because the Board is now proposing action against the license.
Also betrayal is a strong word and to me denotes something of a personal nature, which is not the proper context of a State Nursing Board disciplinary investigation, hearing, or licensure matter. Although its personal to you, this is part of the position description for the investigator; its their job, what they do for a living to earn a salary, and its certainly not personal.
Without getting into a matter of he said she said (which I only like to do on the weekends when I am babysitting my nephew and niece), my comment is always the same: The role of the State Nursing Board is to protect the public, not provide legal representation, counseling, and advising to nurses in disciplinary investigations, hearings, and licensure matters.
"Well, I trusted the investigator and I feel like I tricked." The role of the State Nursing Board is to protect the public, not provide legal representation, counseling, and advising to nurses in disciplinary investigations, hearings, and licensure matters.
I say this because its pretty straightforward and really a matter of common sense because:
1. An employee of a state regulatory agency like the State Nursing Board;
2. Who is not an attorney;
3. Cannot give you legal advice; and
4. If you construe any legal information provided by the investigator as "legal advice" then you ____ _____ _____ _________. I will let you fill in the blanks.
Its the same as going to the DMV (Dept. of Motor Vehicles), IRS, or any federal or state agency or a court, even mayor's court and asking a question which is even remotely legal, they will instantly tell you "we can't answer that, we are not attorneys, you have to talk to an attorney" or "Although I am an attorney, I cannot answer that because I am not your attorney."
I contacted the IRS to schedule online estimated tax payments for 2009 earlier this summer and when I spoke with a representative on the phone and asked questions which I knew were legal questions, I was told "ma'am I can't answer those questions, you need to speak with an attorney." :)
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