Attorneys on the Texas REALTORS® Legal Hotline (512-480-8200) can help you with all manner of real estate legal information. What they cannot do, however, is give legal advice.
What’s the Difference?
Legal advice is a statement that recommends a course of action or interprets the law based on your or your client’s specific circumstances. Legal information is a statement that provides public information, such as rules or laws, or can be an explanation of those rules, terms, or forms.
Here are two examples:
- Legal advice: “The listing agent says the last day of the option period is today, but I think it ended yesterday. Who is right?”
- Legal information: “How do I count the days to determine the deadline for my client’s termination option?”
Who Can Give Legal Advice?
If you want legal advice, you must hire your own attorney. Texas REALTORS® legal staff provides legal information that is not intended and should not be considered legal advice.
While there are countless benefits to membership, access the the Legal Hotline has to be one of my favorites!
In the heat of a complex transaction it is great to be able to talk it out with someone who can bring clarity to the situation, explain processes, terms, and contract forms, etc.
Speed dial #2 on my phone!
This is a nice reminder that we have some reach back but I wish there were more information on this article. Realtors are always warned not to practice law, but the lines get fuzzy pretty easily. For example, this article distinguishes between legal advice and legal information. From the description of legal information and the example, it sounds like you don’t need to be a lawyer to give legal information. So then can Realtors give their clients “legal information”? The way to count days in a standard contract is a good point of discussion. I’d like to see more articles… Read more »
I understand that legal advice should only be given by an attorney who is a client. However, through our association with an attorney hired by the legal hotline on our behalf why are we not considered a client,
So why don’t we cut these lawyer from the payroll. Then we should cut the rates on realtors dues and just add a program that provides realtors with legal information on all real estate matters? Just saying…..
I can’t get this number to work!