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Comment by lolinder | Hacker News Reader

Out of curiosity, are you a lawyer or is this comment missing the IANAL disclaimer that is customary when opining about legal matters?

At least some disclaimers aren't just noise—they add context that would otherwise be missing to help the reader navigate the subtext. The "this is not my work" portion of that disclaimer is highly relevant and useful information for interpreting the blog. The afformentioned IANAL disclaimer helps readers to understand whether your opinion has any stronger basis in law than their own.

I also strongly suspect that some disclaimers would have legal value in the event of someone misusing information being dispensed, but IANAL.

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When a lawyer posts on a forum topic related to the law they usually tell you they’re a lawyer, but not your lawyer and it’s not legal advice.

Safe to assume everyone else is not a lawyer.

Probably safe, yes, though it's still polite to leave the marker for other people to follow later.

And, to the topic at hand: if lawyers consistently do that, that again speaks to the legal value of at least some disclaimers.

Appeal to authority is considered a courtesy nowadays? Fascinating.

Like the previous commenter points out, actual lawyers are quite clear that their statements in this kind of non-professional capacity hold no more weight than any other random Joe. There is no situation of authority. IANAL/IAAL may have once been a funny meme – albeit one quite tired at this point – but doesn't add anything, and may be a detractor if one falls prey to the logically fallacy it potentially introduces.

Defering to an Expert =/= Appealing to Authority

Concluding that a statement holds greater significance because it was stated by an expert === appeal to authority. The person is irrelevant. Just as lawyers regularly point out, their work done outside of a professional context is no different than work done by anyone else. Their expertise is only significant in that when work is done in a professional context they promise to go over and above to put in the proper care to ensure that the work stands up to scrutiny. But even then the work must stand alone! They cannot just throw down whatever gobbledygook and call it something notable just because they are acting as a lawyer. The person is irrelevant.

As before, it used to be a funny meme – albeit one that has become tired – but there is no significance to it. Who the person is tells absolutely nothing about the rest of the comment.

> Just as lawyers regularly point out, their work done outside of a professional context is no different than work done by anyone else.

This is not at all what "I'm not your lawyer" means—that's a disclaimer to say that they're not taking legal liability for their advice to you because you're not paying them. They're still far more qualified than I am to talk about law in the abstract and dismissing that as "appeal to authority" is a false appeal to egalitarianism.

> They're still far more qualified than I am to talk about law in the abstract

While they have the capacity to be more qualified to talk about the law, that does not imply that they will choose to exercise those qualifications. Lawyers can be trolls just like everyone else.

The work must stand on its own. If it is of high quality, then it is of high quality. It does not matter who wrote it. If an infinite number of monkeys wrote it, it is still of equal value.

The person is irrelevant.

I don't think they understand what appeal to authority means. Better to just let it go.

Where is the fun in that?

They usually don't stick "DISCLAIMER" in all caps in front of that note, as if the word itself was some kind of magical incantation.

I am not a lawyer, but didn’t include the disclaimer because I don’t think it’s relevant to my comment.

Even were I a lawyer, it should carry the same weight. Some random, kind internet stranger sharing ideas.

I think it distracts from the conversation as I wasn’t giving legal advice but just thinking about how useful and relevant disclaimers are.

The comment is more about too much bullshit language used in our lives, so I think minimizing (or at least intending and attempting to) bullshit in my own comments is something I can control.

This reminded me the commercial "I am not a lawyer, but I did stay at Holiday Inn last night".

merely being a lawyer still isn't enough. They would have to be licensed in the state in which the potential action took place, and fully informed about the circumstances.

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