Kansas Attorneys – How Providing Legal Advice Outside Your Specialty Can Put Your License at Risk

When you decided to attend law school, you may have already had a pretty good idea of what area of the law you would be interested in.  On the flip side, you may have ended up working in a specialty that you never thought you would be interested in prior to law school.  One great thing about the legal field is that attorneys have the ability to focus their practices on one particular area of the law, or to provide a broad spectrum of legal services.  Whether you are a specialized attorney, or full-service attorney, it is essential that you possess the knowledge, skill, and experience to provide your clients with competent and superior legal representation.

All too often, attorneys try to answer questions clients may have about other areas of the law.  For example, if you are a personal injury attorney and your client has a question about taxes or estate matters, and you truly are not familiar with those areas of the law, any answer you provide to your client may be misconstrued.  In order to prevent a situation where ancillary legal advice could come back to haunt you, it is crucial that you do the following:

  • Explain clearly, both in words and in writing, that the legal representation you are providing your client is limited in scope to a particular matter (such as an auto accident case);
  • When clients ask questions that you do not believe you are qualified to answer, let your client know that such questions will have to be directed to an attorney who does specialize in other areas of the law (such as tax law and estate law); and
  • Document all conversations you have with clients, whether in writing, or in a particular database so that you can demonstrate what the scope of your legal advice was for a particular conversation, building evidence to defend any potential allegation of legal malpractice.

Some attorneys may have a thorough understanding of many areas of the law, but if their law practice is specialized, they must be careful when providing clients with legal advice that ordinarily is not given.  Even one statement that is misconstrued by a client can become a problem for you later on in your career.  Unhappy clients may decide to file a complaint with the Kansas Office of Disciplinary Administrator, and even if such complaints are unsupported, you still have to respond to the complaint and face the potential suspension or loss of your license.  Further, the process in and of itself can be quite stressful, even if you are ultimately exonerated of any wrongdoing.

Contact Danielle Sanger of the Sanger Law Office Today to Schedule Your Free Consultation

As attorneys, you seek to look out for your clients’ best interests, and want to help them in any way you can.  Not every client will be happy with the legal representation he or she has received, and may even complain to the disciplinary board.  If you are facing the potential loss of your Kansas law license due to providing legal advice and/or services beyond the scope of your specialty, it cannot be stressed enough how crucial it is that you have a seasoned Kansas Professional License Defense Attorney thoroughly evaluate your situation.  At the Sanger Law Office, Kansas Professional License Defense Attorney Danielle Sanger devotes her law practice to helping fellow Kansas professionals seek to keep their professional licenses.  As a fellow attorney, Ms. Sanger truly understands what her clients are going through, and uses all available resources to assist them in keeping their Kansas law license.  As a former Assistant Attorney General of Kansas, Ms. Sanger has well-rounded experience that enables her to provide her clients with legal representation from a unique perspective.  If you would like to discuss your situation with Ms. Sanger, contact the Sanger Law Office today by calling (785) 979-4353.

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