The unauthorized practice of law (UPL) is something that law librarians who work directly with the public have to always keep in mind. In Texas, the practice of law is defined as:
1. The preparation of a pleading or other document incident to an action or special proceeding or the management of the action or proceeding on behalf of a client before a judge in court.
2. A service rendered out of court, including the giving of advice or the rendering of any service requiring the use of legal skill or knowledge
Anyone who is found practicing law without a license can be charged with committing a crime in Texas. This means unfortunately, when your friendly law librarians tell you they can’t answer a question because we aren’t attorneys and therefore can’t give legal advice, it’s due to this section of the Texas Government Code that we are required to follow.
Being unable to prepare pleadings or other documents is clear enough to understand and follow. However, ‘giving legal advice’ is more of a grey area. Because of this, our friends at the Legal Information Services to the Public Special Interest Section of AALL took to CHATGPT to ask it to explain the ‘unauthorized practice of law’ to a five year old (ELI5). Presumably, finding inspiration from the popular subreddit with this same title. The AI compared UPL to the building of Legos, which we thought was genius and helped make the issue more digestible. To take it one step further, we came up with a graphic to help with the visualization of the AI’s answer, which we included in this blog post.
In summary, the law librarians at your public government law libraries want to help you. We are passionate about bridging the justice gap and we understand that many people cannot afford an attorney. With that being said, we can only read the instructions with you, point out where the pieces go, and tell you about different sets. We cannot put the Lego set together for you. If you have any questions, and you’re unsure whether or not they would be considered legal advice, you’re always welcome to give us a call. If we can’t help you, we’ll do our best to find you someone who can.