Legal advice

Legal advice is a legal service that includes advice on legal matters for private or legal persons. From consulting activities, the activities of legal services and legal representation are to be defined. In an extension of the consulting activities but also legal services and representation are held regularly.

New forms of legal advice are the online legal services, where the user or client communicates exclusively or primarily on the internet with the lawyer, or legal advice by telephone, in which the person seeking advice is connected immediately with a lawyer about a voice service that directly on him phone consults; colloquially lawyer hotline.

Germany

In Germany, the extra-judicial legal advice from the Legal Services Act is regulated by law, which replaced July 1, 2008, the Legal Advice Act. An unrestricted, extrajudicial, pecuniary legal advice in individual cases may therefore make only certain people, namely essentially only lawyers, legal advisers, tax advisers and patent agents. Anyone providing free of charge legal advice ( legal services ) outside of family, neighborly or similar close personal relations, must ensure that the legal services by a person who is allowed the supplying of provision of such legal services, by a person qualified to hold judicial office or under the supervision of such a person takes place. Various other individuals and groups can provide, under certain conditions legal advice as part of their duties and jurisdiction. Condition can be, for example, the official registry or instructions by certain authorized to any further legal advice people. In particular, the official registration here attracts more extensive requirements for eligibility ( suitability, reliability, expertise, professional liability insurance, etc. ) to itself.

The consumer centers as are authorized by the Legal Services Act to extrajudicial legal advice ( and other legal services ) as part of their duties and jurisdiction. Other entities such as banks may not issue legal advice in general.

Whether the legal advice by telephone or online legal advice are permitted, was initially controversial. Therefore, the first provider had a lot of competition procedures to go through until eventually the Federal Court declared these forms of legal advice admissible.

In the military field, there are officials who are used as so-called legal advisor. They advise military commanders on all matters and are in addition to the Official Military Disciplinary Lawyers. Take in foreign missions of the Bundeswehr soldiers status in part as legal counsel staff officers.

Almost all municipal courts offer free advice help hours for little earner.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, the legal advice is not legally regulated. Any party may give legal advice. Is also in judicial proceedings not a lawyer, ie any legally competent person can not and must plead their cause before the courts themselves. The regular pecuniary interest representation in civil and criminal proceedings generally falls under the cantonal lawyer monopoly.