It’s a Sunday Night. Dinner is done and you’re winding down and getting ready for another week ahead.

You decide to scroll social media when you see a post from a distraught mother of two young children asking some legal questions on a public forum. You scroll through the comments from a wide array of people and notice a plethora of information being provided to the young, frantic woman – none of which is correct.

As a family law practitioner, this situation tugs at your heartstrings. You want to help. What are you legally obligated to do? Because you saw the post, and saw that she is being provided with wrong information, are you not legally obligated to right the wrong? What shouldn’t you do? Is it better to walk away from the situation in whole?

The Unintended Consequences of Responding

When attorneys encounter bad legal advice online, especially on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit, they should proceed with caution. While it is tempting to provide this young mom with some reprieve, providing casual advice to someone online can be risky and detrimental to your career.

Even informal advice can create an unintended attorney-client relationship, and thus reap unintended consequences. This relationship, whether intentional or unintentional, subjects attorneys to ethical obligations and potential liability.

If an attorney-client relationship is created, you now have a duty to that client, and this is where the situation potentially gets complicated. If you provide this young mother with legal advice, you have now created an attorney-client relationship where you owe her a duty to avoid conflicts of interest, of confidentiality, and arguably to communicate and act honestly (SRC 1.4, 1.6 and 1.7).

A Response Can Create Conflicts

Further, in Wisconsin specifically, attorneys must adhere to the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC). RPC 1.7 (Conflict of Interest) and RPC 1.9 (Duties to Former Clients) are particularly relevant in this circumstance (SCR Chapter 20: Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys).

Providing advice to this random person online could create a conflict of interest and compromise your potential duty to any of your existing clients.

The simplest reason for this is because you have not been able to perform a conflict check on the names involved in the matter. You know nothing about this young mom’s situation. You know nothing about the other party involved. A simple example: the other party involved in this dispute could have called and retained your partner at your office already that morning, thus, you would be providing legal advice to the opposing party of someone retained by your office.

Risking Unauthorized Practice

This situation gets a whole lot more precarious when the poster requesting assistance​​ is from a different jurisdiction (state, country, or providence). If the attorney is not licensed in that specific state, they cannot provide specific legal advice, should they choose that they want to assist the poster.

Attorneys must not engage in the unauthorized practice of law in other states (SCR Chapter 23: Regulation of Unauthorized Practice of Law). Instead, should an attorney choose to engage the poster regarding their legal issue, they should encourage the poster to consult an attorney licensed in their relevant jurisdiction, explaining that laws vary by state which in turn can affect the outcome of their situation and their rights.

Here's a Solution

To minimize the potential risk, should you choose to respond to the post at all, instead of offering legal opinions or assistance, you should simply refer non-clients like this young woman to appropriate legal resources.

In Wisconsin, one great legal resource is the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic, which offers both in person and virtual options for assistance with legal questions all over the entire state.

Remember, attorneys should prioritize professional responsibility, avoid conflicts, and protect themselves from potential legal risks when navigating online legal discussions over their desire to be helpful and help others. I know many of us got into this profession to make a difference, but we simply cannot make a difference if we are not practicing legally or ethically.

This article was originally published on the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Family Law Section Blog. Visit the State Bar sections or the Family Law Section web pages to learn more about the benefits of section membership.