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It seems like they're advertising their vault service for healthcare data. They then offer a disclaimer that they are not lawyers. How can you offer advice for

by jamra 6y ago

It seems like they're advertising their vault service for healthcare data. They then offer a disclaimer that they are not lawyers. How can you offer advice for such a risky area and then not stand behind it? Is your service also not verified by lawyers? It seems like a marketing piece with the intention of showing off their product, but I found that part to be odd.

paulcole 6y ago
> Is your service also not verified by lawyers This is exceedingly common w/ service providers in the HIPAA compliance space. They want the benefit of sounding like an expert while washing their hands of any consequence if/when they have made a mistake.
SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
The lawyers would have insisted on a disclaimer like that. The problem is that true legal advice as opposed to information or guidance - a judgment that suchandsuch solution fulfills your specific legal obligations in suchandsuch scenario - can’t ethically be given by lawyers without personal consultation and can’t legally be given by non-lawyers at all.
acoard 6y ago
This is standard, and doesn't mean they aren't standing behind their work. If you ever see "legal advice" (in the loosest sense of the term) being given in online forums, like /r/LegalAdvice, the phrase you see the most is IANAL[0] – "I am not a lawyer." By actual lawyers, you usually see the variant "I am not your lawyer." Being my lawyer means I have cilent-lawyer confidentiality and other privileges. But you commenting online, or writing a github repo, doesn't meet that standard. This might seem very obvious to you, but unfortunately I've seen people get this wrong a bunch. It's a component of ensuring we protect everyone's rights. Essentially if you used that project and got in legal hot water, and then said, "but hey, I got legal advice from this github repo", well if they were lawyers they could lose their license. This is drilled into them as ethical behaviour. Getting it wrong comes with risk, and there's no benefit. A lawyer is only going to give you advice once you're actually their client, have signed an engagement letter or similar, and most importantly they understand the facts of the case. Legal advice is case-specific, and giving general advice leads to wrong advice, which gets people in trouble. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_of_law#Unauthorized_practice_of_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_of_law#Unauthorized_p...

by jamra 6y ago

paulcole 6y ago

> Is your service also not verified by lawyers This is exceedingly common w/ service providers in the HIPAA compliance space. They want the benefit of sounding like an expert while washing their hands of any consequence if/when they have made a mistake.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago

The lawyers would have insisted on a disclaimer like that. The problem is that true legal advice as opposed to information or guidance - a judgment that suchandsuch solution fulfills your specific legal obligations in suchandsuch scenario - can’t ethically be given by lawyers without personal consultation and can’t legally be given by non-lawyers at all.

acoard 6y ago

This is standard, and doesn't mean they aren't standing behind their work. If you ever see "legal advice" (in the loosest sense of the term) being given in online forums, like /r/LegalAdvice, the phrase you see the most is IANAL[0] – "I am not a lawyer." By actual lawyers, you usually see the variant "I am not your lawyer." Being my lawyer means I have cilent-lawyer confidentiality and other privileges. But you commenting online, or writing a github repo, doesn't meet that standard. This might seem very obvious to you, but unfortunately I've seen people get this wrong a bunch. It's a component of ensuring we protect everyone's rights. Essentially if you used that project and got in legal hot water, and then said, "but hey, I got legal advice from this github repo", well if they were lawyers they could lose their license. This is drilled into them as ethical behaviour. Getting it wrong comes with risk, and there's no benefit. A lawyer is only going to give you advice once you're actually their client, have signed an engagement letter or similar, and most importantly they understand the facts of the case. Legal advice is case-specific, and giving general advice leads to wrong advice, which gets people in trouble. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_of_law#Unauthorized_practice_of_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_of_law#Unauthorized_p...