The Dahl Law Blog

          Right after the traditional: "Look to your left. Look to your right. One of you will not graduate from this program," one of the first things I was told during my law school orientation was that by attending law school I would become a marked man. That is, people would seek me out for free legal advice. It was not long before I was receiving my first inquiries.

          Now, as an attorney, I am often contacted for advice on various legal issues. In this day of nearly universally free information, people seem to believe that legal advice can be conveyed in simple terms in just a few minutes. Contacting an attorney over the phone, telling a quick synopsis of your situation, and demanding advice, however, is like contacting a doctor, telling her that you have a few unusual symptoms, and demanding that she fix the problem without giving her any opportunity to examine you. The legal profession, like the medical profession, requires years of training and practice before a person can gain a grasp of most legal concepts. An attorney cannot competently give legal advice in a short phone call or, in most cases, even in a long face to face meeting. Every situation is unique, and every situation requires independent research that is time consuming and expensive. Indeed, in many cases, the legal theories of the case will change over a period of months and years before the attorney can fully determine which path of action is most appropriate.

          This brings me to the point of this first entry of my newly created Dahl Law Blog. NOTHING I post on this blog is intended as legal advice. I do not know your situation. I do not know the facts. I cannot ask the necessary questions, and I have not performed any research relevant to your case. If you seek the advice of counsel, I advise that you look elsewhere.

           Further, please do not contact me for legal advice. I am currently unable to represent any clients. In my current position as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Utah Second District Court I am ethically obligated to refrain from giving any legal advice to any person. This is not because I do not wish to assist, but because I cannot risk forming an attorney-client relationship with any potential litigant due to the potential for conflicts of interest with the Court.

           That being said, this blog is intended as a medium for me to express my understanding of general legal issues. It will never contain any analysis or description of cases that I am currently working on in my job with the Utah courts. I hope to post something at least twice a month on an interesting legal topic. It may be an analysis of a legal issue currently in the news, a constitutional issue I have been thinking about, or recent changes in the law. Most of my posts will probably not be of much use to the lay reader, but it might interest the strange few of you who are interested in the same things as me.
           I also hope to make this blog a good place for people to find links to other sites that will help people perform legal research for free. This may take some time to fully incorporate, but I hope it will eventually be of use to others.  If you like what you see, please let others know.  The more the merrier.

           Follow me on Twitter (@MarkWDahl) and I will try to send a tweet whenever I make a new post.