User:Dreftymac/Docs/RefDeskDisclaimer
< User:Dreftymac | Docs
Law-related questions
[edit]Any Reference Desk answer that applies legal principles to a factual scenario shall be for no use other than illustrative purposes only. Sometimes, hypothetical factual scenarios help a questioner to better understand how to further research a question. Nevertheless, an answer that depicts or applies principles to facts should never be inferred to apply to any specific individual or circumstance, regardless of how familiar or similar the hypothetical facts may seem.
If you see a law-related answer on the Reference Desk, it must never be considered completely correct, even if it is apparently well-founded and thoroughly researched, because:
- the person posing the question may not know all the relevant facts;
- complete analysis always depends on complete context, which is not available on an anonymous general-purpose Reference Desk;
- different jurisdictions (municipal, state, provincial, federal, international, military, etc.) have different traditions and rules;
- the relevant jurisdiction may not be known or knowable;
- critical circumstances may have changed;
- applicable rules may have changed, a cited case may have been reversed or overruled;
- conflicting rules may preclude a complete answer; and
- those who know the whole story, are certain not to tell; and those who presume to tell are certain not to know.
Most importantly, see (Wikipedia:General_disclaimer and Wikipedia:Legal_disclaimer).