Unlawful Garnishment

Ha. It's almost as if the author of that Wikipedia article was speaking directly to taxgirl.

I doubt anything would happen to her, though. Still, I wouldn't admit to a judge that you prepared those forms.

I agree. And I wanted to add that I personally would be more concerned about the client than the court, or some other entity seeing you as 'practicing law'.

As the old adage goes, "No good deed goes unpunished." My concern is that if this clients case takes a turn for the worse, so to speak, he may exhibit that most common of human emotions---BLAME and look to blame anyone at all for the result of this situation if , god forbid, it turns more unfavorable that it already.

Don't let your good be evil spoken of.............

I agree. That's basically what I was getting at when I wrote that there's a chance she could be liable if things went wrong. I don't know of a case where that happened, but I wouldn't rule it out.

Even if the client wasn't successful in getting her charged with practicing without a license, he could drag her and her good name and reputation through court ad nauseum............

It's a shame to have to say but trust no one when it comes to business relationships---at least not to the extent that it could cost you your livelihood.

Funny story--I went into the court room once with a friend of mine's 80 year old grandmother. She was there about a relative that had been arrested and she was trying to get information about him. She was hard of hearing, so I was repeating what she wanted and then was repeating what the judge said to her. This was not in opened court, but after court, very informal. The judge became irate with me and lectured me about practicing law without a license when I was giving NO advice at ALL, just repeating what HE said. He made me leave. THEN after about five minutes of HIS trying to communicate with the dear old lady, he called me back and asked me to assist him. He was not, however, gracious enough to actually apologize. LOL

So, it can be taken to silly extremes if someone has it in them to be vindictive.

"For instance, many accountants who represent small businesses (This would be more accurate to say corporations.) will "fill out some forms" to create a corporation. They are drafting legal documents, which requires a law license."
However, there is a substantial amount of overlap between the practice of law and various other professions where clients are represented by agents. These professions include real estate, banking, accounting, and insurance. Moreover, a growing number of legal document assistants (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals.

I believe, with the ever increasing statistics of folks out there who are representing themselves in court, with or without assistance, that the times are a changing. The courtroom that I walk into almost every day as a professional "witness" has seen a trend that may be happening nationwide, I don't know for sure. But this particular courtroom has a more relaxed attitude towards those who represent themselves. I am curious about where it says in any state statute that a person who represents themselves cannot have assistance? That question has not been answered to my satisfaction. And does the state statute or law conflict with Supreme Court law? Thanks for all comments.

No state is allowed to have a law that is in juxtaposition to the supreme law of the land, the Constitution.
That being said, state law varies greatly. AND the idea of representing yourself is not new. However, when you have assistance, the point at which that assistance crosses the proverbial line, is where the subjectivity comes into play.

And, while a court may be lax in this area, you never know at which point opposing counsel may want to make an issue out of it........and you're sunk.

I wouldn't worry so much about opposing counsel as I would your own client who, if he is going to look for ANYONE else to blame.......and I fear that would be YOU.
It's a gray area.............I'd protect myself and stay in the white. : )

Alrighty then, I'll just finish with my Enrolled Agent continuing education and go back to LAW SCHOOL so I can help those I'm already helping....maybe go for a few more degrees while I'm at it. Do you think I can get extra credit for 20 years of experience?????

As long as they aren't "fifteen hours of real estate classes" (cough cough).

Experience is a wonderful teacher. I know your clients are lucky to have you conscientiously care so much!!

don't tell anybody (we can't have that now, can we)