Real-Life Decision Making
You're a family law paralegal dealing with divorce, custody and child
support cases. When you're not in court, a good part of your time is
spent communicating with your clients, who are usually pretty emotionally
stressed out.
One of your clients, Maureen, calls you on the telephone. She has two small
children, one a toddler, the other still an infant. She's also become
a single mother after her divorce last year. You helped handle that divorce
and have since spoken to her countless times.
Phil, her ex-husband, has decided not to pay Maureen's child support
this month. As he explains it, he bought Tommy (the toddler) some expensive
new sneakers and feels he's paid his monthly dues. The prospect of having
no child support has Maureen panicked.
You know she has nothing to worry about. You know the law -- Phil can't
reduce or withhold child support because he bought his son new shoes. You're
confident that Maureen will get the payment, so she has no real reason to
worry.
There's one catch, though. You're not allowed to give legal advice.
Remember that you're not an attorney who went to law school, you're
a paralegal. Any non-lawyer caught giving legal advice violates the unauthorized
practice of law (UPL) statute.
Usually, you could just delay your response until you've spoken with
the attorney, but in this case she's out of town and you won't be
able to contact her easily this week. And you want to avoid telling Maureen
to find another attorney.
So you're stuck. You and Maureen have known each other for some years
and you know you have the power to alleviate her financial worries with a
simple, "Don't worry, he can't do that." But by interpreting the
law and giving your legal opinion, you could risk losing your job and your
reputation as well as that of your supervising attorney.
What do you do?