abstract:IANAL is a Usenet and chat abbreviation (acronym) for "I am not a lawyer". A related abbreviation, TINLA, stands for "This is not legal advice" and may be used by either non-lawyers seeking to avoid accusations of unauthorized practice of law or lawyers clarifying that they do not have enough information to provide situation-specific advice and are not making any recommendation to the particular addressee of their remarks.
The first is the obligatory IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) statement, with "Be sureto seeklegaladvice" advice tacked on, whichensures thatno lawyer will sue me forbad advice.