Concerning questions who's answers all start with "I'm not a lawyer, but..."

Question

There were a couple questions this week that sparked this post...

• https://video.stackexchange.com/q/8667/2569
• https://video.stackexchange.com/q/8665/2569

A quick search reveals others...

• Who owns raw footage?
• Fair use with copyrighted material
• What are the rights to exported video from the Apple's Keynote app?

Or pretty much anything tagged copyright

I can even remember an answer I gave myself.

It's not that there can't be useful answers to such questions. Far from it, in fact. I just wonder whether or not there should be a boiler-plate "mod post notice" or flag reason, or some such thing.

Perhaps a legal tag that had a wiki full of disclaimers?

Thoughts?

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EDIT

Doing a bit of research on meta.so...

Wanted: A standard way for a site to have a prominent professional advice disclaimer

Any legal exposure from answering questions?

http://meta.answers.onstartups.com/q/415

http://meta.answers.onstartups.com/q/113

Looks like what it boils down to is: If you're a lawyer, you need a disclaimer stating that your advice does not constitute an attorney/client relationship etc... If you're not a lawyer, you don't need a disclaimer.

Seems counter-intuitive at first, but makes sense I guess.

Answer 1

I like the idea of a tag that has the disclaimer, but I don't think it would be enough by itself to have me stop starting out with IANAL. It's a basic cover your ass move that is generally considered best practice when giving what could be construed as legal advice.

It might be worth having something to put in comments on the question directly though that highlights that legal issues vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and that information provided on the forums is simply the best understanding that people have of general practices, which may or may not differ from what is legal in the OP's situation. Maybe something like:

"Legal issues can vary greatly from one location to another. While answers may give insight in to personal experience and understanding of common types of law, a local lawyer should be consulted to clarify what is or is not legal in your local jurisdiction. Most posters are not lawyers and their answers should not be construed as legal advice unless they specifically claim to be a lawyer with knowledge of your jurisdiction."