Sep 20, 2022

Legal Information vs. Legal Advice: What’s the Difference?

Legal Information vs. Legal Advice: What’s the Difference?

If you are in the middle of a legal issue, you will reach out to others for advice and help. During this process, you must know the difference between legal information and legal advice to understand all angles of your situation. Read on to learn about the differences between legal information and legal advice.

What Is Legal Information?

Legal information is straightforward and exactly what it sounds like—information about different laws and legal precedents. Anyone can give out legal information since it is basic knowledge about various legal topics. Legal information is objective statements about the law, not your particular legal situation. For example, if you receive a speeding ticket, good legal information will tell you how to pay for it or contest it if that's what you want.

What Is Legal Advice?

If you received legal advice for a speeding ticket, you would have an attorney look over your particular situation and give you case-related information. Another example that can help explain the difference is if you had a contract in front of you. Legal information would tell you to read carefully, and you can find information about specific clauses or stipulations. On the other hand, legal advice would be much more detailed, and your attorney would tailor it to what the information in the contract says. Legal advice requires knowledge of the law and its application to various people and situations.

Understanding the Differences

One critical difference between legal information and legal advice is that legal information does not establish an attorney-client relationship. This lack of a relationship means that if you receive legal information from someone, they are not obligated to protect what they told you. However, if you receive advice from an attorney, you've created an attorney-client relationship, and they cannot discuss what they told you with anyone else.

Additionally, only a licensed attorney can give legal advice. This advice comes from years of experience and knowledge gained through law school. With this knowledge and experience, your attorney can untangle your personal legal issues and give you the best advice for navigating the situation and moving forward.

Understanding the difference between legal information and legal advice is critical to ensuring you get the right guidance for your legal situation. Of course, you can always look to friends, family, and the internet to get some good legal information, but if you want legal advice, consider coming to us at Schiller DuCanto & Fleck. We have years of legal experience and some of the best Illinois family law attorneys you can find. When you work with us, you will surely get some quality legal advice to help you navigate your legal situation.

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