Think When You Read: Analyzing the Role of Legal Advice on the Internet and Blogs
Before the recent shooting in Tucson, Arizona and especially in the wake of that tragedy, part of the national conversation has focused on the comparative roles of journalism and editorial voice in the media as our news experience becomes increasingly interactive, fast-paced, and sometimes knee-jerk. With this context, now is as good a time as any to clarify the role of our Nevada personal injury & accident blog. For Nevadans affected by an injury or accident and who are looking for legal guidance, this is a great place to start — but this blog is by no means intended as a one-stop shop for legal advice.
As the Internet has grown more powerful and wide-reaching in the last decade, entrepreneurs have developed all sorts of ways to utilize the World Wide Web for the benefit both of themselves and their would-be clientele. Online shopping has revolutionized the marketplace, and the power of social media is still surging toward greater and greater heights. But with this massively expanding source of information and available services, users must exercise appropriate caution to ensure that they gain value for their money and do not make the mistake of trusting the advice of a person entirely unaccountable to them. Speaking in general terms, we feel that legal advice in particular lends itself less readily than many services to online applications.
Consider a few hypotheticals: a clothing vendor can probably sell his wares in all 50 states without incident; but do you think an attorney licensed in one state can effectively represent a client whose case is based in another state and subject to the latter’s laws, regulations, and court precedents? One reason that our blog is so focused on discussing legal issues specific or applicable to Nevada is because our experienced Nevada personal injury attorneys do not want readers to think that our lawyers’ comments apply equally to cases or issues arising in other jurisdictions. Consider another: if you read an entry in the Merriam-Webster dictionary or in the Encyclopedia Britannica, you have a reasonable expectation that the contents of said entry are accurate and can be relied upon extensively. The purpose of those reference publications is to serve as the basis of objective scholarly work. On the other hand, a blog that discusses interesting or important lawsuits or court cases is doing precisely that: discussing, analyzing, commenting. When we share a brief opinion on a national news story involving a wrongful death lawsuit, we are certainly not trying to suggest that the case parallels perfectly (or in many cases, even approximately) to a case that might arise in Las Vegas.
We take pains to draw this distinction by noting where we move from analysis to extrapolation and from re-reporting to speculating. Further, we emphasize the importance of a consultation with an experienced injury lawyer about a case affecting you or a loved one; no two cases are identical, and often cases that appear similar are actually vastly different in subtle but important ways. To be frank, it is the role of attorneys, judges, and litigation to inspect these cases and the spaces between them, and that is why an average reader would be better off speaking with a licensed attorney than relying on the advice (and ideas and fancies and preferences and opinions) available from strangers on the Internet.
