The Legal Aspects of Giving Advice

[RedPanda]

Hi all, I've recently been in a discussion on another thread about the legal aspects of giving immigration advice. I'll include the link to approximately where the discussion starts in the other thread. (Please let me know there's something wrong with the link) Originally I wanted to quote it, but it got too long.

http://www.saaustralia.org/index.php/topic/45569-ict-in-australia/#entry414057

My conclusion was that people giving advice generally only get into trouble in one of two cases:

A- You are a professional, and you give negligent advice in your field. Regardless of whether you are "on duty, or off duty".

B- You lie about being qualified to give the advice that you give (even if it is not directly but in putting up offices, or a letterhead or something that makes you appear to be legit) This is fraud.

But you cannot get into legal trouble when giving advice if you are not qualified as a professional in that field, and you don't pretend to be qualified.

We would like to know if anyone on the forum has a different understanding of how this works, or has some some experience, or even if any of the legal people can explain it better? (would you need a disclaimer for that?)

I thought it would be interesting, since we are all on a forum where people ask for, give, and receive advice from each other all the time. And to my knowledge we only have two registered migration agents(both of whom clearly indicate their status, so no confusion there).

[Nev]

I am not an expert - See what i did here

But your summary seems reasonable and ties in with the reading up that i have done

[Riekie]

It's against Australian Immigration Law to provide immigration advice or assistance in relation to visas if you are not a registered migration agent. That said, because this forum is hosted in USA, we don't fall under Australian law BUT, anyone who poses as a registered migration agent or conduct themselves in contravention of the Australian Migration Law or act illegally while being a registered migration agent can still be prosecuted under Australian law. So basically - it is OK for people to share their experiences and advice on how they went about their migration and visa process. To be honest, OMARA is not concerned about a few harmless people on a forum supporting others through the process - they're after the big boys who make a business in deceiving people or using illegal practices to obtain visas for people either by deceit, fraud or bribes. This is what I was told in person by one of the most prominent migration lawyers in Australia when I asked him this exact question.

[RedPanda]

Thanks, Riekie, it's good to be aware that the law in Australia is a little bit different from the law in RSA. Even though the spirit/actual implementation seems to be the same.