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Legal Ethics

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Unit 8 Assignment
Legal Ethics
March 5, 2015
Amanda Woods

Before answering these questions I will explain what Unauthorized Practice of Law is. Unauthorized Practice of law is when a paralegal gives legal advice to anybody. A paralegal cannot advise a person on the law and what they can and cannot do. For example if a paralegal is asked My mother fell down the steps at her apartment building and the owner of the building has refused to fix the steps and that’s the reason she fell, legally what can we do? The paralegal cannot answer this question because it is a specific question about specific people and a specific incident. If the person had asked if a person fell down the stairs due to negligence what can be done? The paralegal could answer this question because you could find the answer on the internet and because it is a hypothetical question not a specific case.
If Mr. Smith calls and leaves a message with Polly Paralegal asking if the grounds for divorce in North Carolina include adultery. Polly Paralegal can answer his question without the fear of Unauthorized Practice of Law because this is a generic question that isn’t specific about any one person or incident. She could easily do the legal research on this question and let him know what the law states. She could also give him the definition of adultery so he knows what it classified as. Because Polly Paralegal is telling Mr. Smith information that he could easily find on the internet it would not be considered UPL. In Mrs. Smith’s case when she asks Polly Paralegal if she has the grounds for divorce because she found out Stan was committing adultery. Polly could not answer this because she has asked a specific question about a specific person. If she had just asked what the grounds for divorce were in North Carolina Polly could have gave her an answer without the fear of UPL.

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