 Hi, I'm Sarah Pick, Head of Public Services at the Law Library of Louisiana, which is part of the Louisiana Supreme Court in New Orleans, and we'll 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 UPL line from information into advice with the combination of a patron's 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, it 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 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 following a file of UPL laws is that it is always okay to suggest someone should seek legal advice. Many legal situations are really complex and the patient really will be better off. 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 patients 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 going to 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 going to 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 we really don't know how a judge will rule. So 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 I 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 patients, 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 on filling them out. That really can be construed as practice in law, which is violating UPL. As I mentioned, you probably won't be prosecuted, but 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 have been trying to find information for my patrons, many of whom are 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 a 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 heighted 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 patrons' 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 quickiedivorce.com 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 quickiedivorce.com actually is crossing the line from information into advice and would-be UPL. If they use quickiedivorce.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.