IANAL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
IANAL is a Usenet and chat abbreviation (acronym) for "I am not a lawyer." A similar abbreviation, TINLA, stands for "This is not legal advice."
One or both of these abbreviations usually precede opinions about law. The use of these abbreviations serves as a warning for the reader not to take the opinion as professional legal advice. Many jurisdictions have legal restrictions on actually giving or even appearing to give legal advice, or otherwise practicing as a lawyer without legal qualifications and official registration. Rendition of legal advice by a person who is not licensed to do so can be the basis for a charge of Unauthorized practice of law.
Use of the expression dates to at least 1990 [1]. The expression became more and more common on online web forums starting from the year 2000, when debate about file sharing and peer-to-peer applications started to focus on copyright, privacy, and fair use issues.
A variant of IANAL is IANYL ("I am not your lawyer"). The term may be used by a lawyer posting comments on a message board to indicate that the commentator is, in fact, a lawyer, but to emphasize that the commentator does not represent the reader (and to indicate that the comments are not protected by the attorney-client privilege).
Other variations of IANAL refer to different fields, such as IANAMD for "I am not a Medical Doctor." These serve the same general purpose as IANAL — to discourage the use of the information as actual professional advice.
A very common usage on Slashdot is IANAP, or "I am not a physicist," in discussions related to scientific breakthroughs and their implications.
