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I agree that it is smart to say "get a lawyer" in this situation. It does seem very hairy. But now something off topic... I noticed that these kind of answers

by tlogan 14y ago

I agree that it is smart to say "get a lawyer" in this situation. It does seem very hairy. But now something off topic... I noticed that these kind of answers ("get a lawyer") are used also to answer question even when people are just curious or they just want to learn something. It is nearly impossible to learn what needs to be read or investigated in order to evaluate the situation. For example, I don't need a lawyer for small claims court but where to get some advise? In other words, even the most common sense questions regarding law, health, taxes, etc are answered with "get a lawyer, see a doctor, get tax advisor, get accountant, etc". It does seems that market of legal, health, tax, and similar professionals is due to a disruption. Is there a cheap lawyer service? Something like not visiting doctor but just visiting nurse.

cube13 14y ago
The problem really is that all three of those fields(law, taxes, and health) are highly personal. To get to the right answer in most non-trivial situations, a lot more personal information is required. Because of that, while anecdotes are very helpful in making a person feel better about their situation, they might not be the right information that the person needs. It's better to consult with experts who should be able to assist with the specific situation.
newbusox 14y ago
The issue with law is that laws are dissimilar from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, in meaningful enough ways that giving advice based on the laws for one jurisdiction might be entirely useless in another. Moreover, even I were to live in that jurisdiction, unless I am intimately familiar with the aspect of law questioned about (which is highly unlikely, even extremely experienced attorneys do legal research), I will have to spend time researching. If I spend time researching, I expect to be paid, generally because the tools used to research are not, themselves, free, like Westlaw or LexisNexis. Moreover, I generally get paid to research to begin with so, in not doing paid research for other clients, I am potentially losing money I might otherwise be making. Not to say that lawyers can never give good legal advice to legal questions without researching--but the paradigm that I just described is a big reason why people, including lawyers, answer legal questions with "hire a lawyer."

by tlogan 14y ago

cube13 14y ago

The problem really is that all three of those fields(law, taxes, and health) are highly personal. To get to the right answer in most non-trivial situations, a lot more personal information is required. Because of that, while anecdotes are very helpful in making a person feel better about their situation, they might not be the right information that the person needs. It's better to consult with experts who should be able to assist with the specific situation.

newbusox 14y ago

The issue with law is that laws are dissimilar from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, in meaningful enough ways that giving advice based on the laws for one jurisdiction might be entirely useless in another. Moreover, even I were to live in that jurisdiction, unless I am intimately familiar with the aspect of law questioned about (which is highly unlikely, even extremely experienced attorneys do legal research), I will have to spend time researching. If I spend time researching, I expect to be paid, generally because the tools used to research are not, themselves, free, like Westlaw or LexisNexis. Moreover, I generally get paid to research to begin with so, in not doing paid research for other clients, I am potentially losing money I might otherwise be making. Not to say that lawyers can never give good legal advice to legal questions without researching--but the paradigm that I just described is a big reason why people, including lawyers, answer legal questions with "hire a lawyer."