united-states advice
What constitutes giving legal advice?
<p>On sites such as this one, people are often concerned about non-lawyers "giving legal advice" or "practicing law without a license".  What, exactly, constitutes such actions?  I'm particularly interested in the situation in the United States, since that's where the StackExchange servers are.</p>

<p>It depends highly on which jurisdiction you're referring to. This is one of the areas where it varies state to state. &quot;Practicing law&quot; is not generally defined in statute, but the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_of_law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia definition</a> defines it as (emphasis mine):</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>giving legal advice</strong> to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister, solicitor, or civil law notary.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wikipedia defines <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_advice" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Legal advice</a> as</p>
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<p>the giving of a professional or formal opinion regarding the substance or procedure of the law in relation to a particular factual situation.</p>
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<p>and displays the following enforcement provision (emphasis mine):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Criminal laws and enforcement of &quot;Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL)&quot; statutes is the organized bar's preferred method. Thus, New Jersey has a law which makes it a “<strong>disorderly persons offense</strong>” to knowingly to engage in the unauthorized practice of law, and a “<strong>crime in the fourth degree</strong>” to commit UPL if one (a) creates a false impression that one is a lawyer; (b) derives a benefit from UPL, or (c) causes an injury by UPL.</p>
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<p>See also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IANAL</a>, which has some information about usage on the Internet:</p>
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<p>The case law standard for determining what comments cross the line is generally &quot;the application of law to facts specific to an individual seeking legal advice&quot;.</p>
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