AIBU to wish people wouldn't try to give legal advice

[Singlenotsingle]

It's so irritating when I see people start of a post by saying "I'm not a lawyer but..." and then say something that's obviously incorrect! I know it's done with the best of intentions but so often they say something that's based on morals or opinions, not law. (And yes, I do have a legal background, but I won't comment on something out of my area of law ).

YANBU OP
I work in benefits and this grinds my gears as well.
If you don't know the law don't guess, don't speculate, don't say what you think morally the law should be.
Just say you don't know or, better still, say nothing.
I hate seeing a string of inaccurate and wildly contradictory advice with the one or two correct posts hidden somewhere in amongst it.

Yep. It kills me.

IANAL but have a PhD in an area many consider themselves to be well-versed.

The Employment forum is especially awful for this. Recent thread where an OP with a lengthy sick record was told she couldn’t be sacked if was all certified by her doctor as that would be discrimination.

Head —> wall.

It's along the lines of the advice given about workplaces.

"have a chat with hr" is usually pretty terrible advice.

IANAL is a great acronym

Well versed in MN Friday nights?

Sorry for lowering tone of thread.

Was just dropping in to say I love IANAL too

haha

@WontonSoupForTheSoul

Was it you recently who pointed out the HR work in the interests of the company. For that reason alone, I'd often thought it was stupid advice.

There are some classics today, "it's illegal not to give a reference", and lots of talk about the GDPR and massive fines for a minor breach. 'Tis all bollocks.

It's all well intentioned but perhaps people forget that it's a real person asking for advice and bad advice has consequences.

I recommend you sue anyone who tries to give you legal advice online.

I used to work in a role very close to HR. I wouldn't trust any of them with a half eaten peanut butter sandwich.

Same with tax "advice". Some utter crap said on here and other forums by people who have no actual knowledge. It's actually quite dangerous.

And the medical advice!

Mixing up your moral judgement with how you think the law should be is what keeps lawyers in business!!!
I have never understood people seeming to think that HR have in some way replaced the trade union rep? A company employed someone to manage their Human Resources, of course they are there to protect the company. And follow the actual law, not the imagined ones they have in their heads....

It's the same with a anything ,medical advice, mental health etc I have seen some very bad even dangerous advice and let's not get started on armchair diagnosis,s everyone's mil or someone they don't like is a narcissistic and any bad behaviour is either Asd on dementia depending on age

And sometime the LTB advice in Relationships for minor transgressions

An d colleague of mine used to refer to HR as Human Remains - lol . By all means post for advice but the bottom line is those in challenging situations / separating / divorcing etc really do need legal advice from a lawyer otherwise all we’re really posting is our own experiences / misconceptions etc in the light of the information provided

Old colleague not d !

Bad advice is not confined to the law - it's often in the medical advice threads too.

Ah yes some of the medical ones are way off and as for legal advice it’s just someone’s opinion / misconception

I don’t think that was me, @steadtler
(Though maybe you meant to direct your reply to Chesty?)

The Employment forum is especially awful for this. Recent thread where an OP with a lengthy sick record was told she couldn’t be sacked if was all certified by her doctor as that would be discrimination.

Head —> wall.

The ones that get posted in AIBU instead of employment issues are even better. Worked there a week? Quit and claim constructive dismissal!

Was it you recently who pointed out the HR work in the interests of the company. For that reason alone, I'd often thought it was stupid advice.

I wouldn’t agree with that.

YANBU

It’s particularly irritating when the OP clearly needs advice about something very specific that a ‘layperson’ would never pick up on but is blatantly obvious to anyone with experience of the area.

I’ve seen a few threads where this has happened and genuinely knowledgeable people are pointing the OP to the correct resources and letting them know about things they ‘might want to consider’, only to be ignored because the general opinion is something different.

Other forums are worse for this however...

(Full disclosure, I work in HR and have done for a long time so have been in pretty much every role. I don’t work in a traditional HR space now and more in a consultancy capacity paid by third parties so don’t have a bias towards the companies or employees I’m arbitrating (or mediating) between. My educational background is a mix of Business/HR and Legal).

I don’t think it’s always accurate to say HR defends only the company at the cost of employees. They will create policies that are within legislation, and implement them fairly.

One of the biggest issues you’ll encounter is someone coming to HR and saying “I’m having a problem with my manager/coworker and want you to do something about it (or sack them!) but I’m not willing to formally raise this and want complete anonymity”.

It’s not workable. Imagine if you’re in work and management took you said to say “we’ve had a complaint about you that we can’t investigate because we don’t have enough information, and can’t give you details of who raised it so you can defend/explain yourself but you’re going to be disciplined/penalised for it”.