Speech to the Public Laying Out Legal Theories Isn’t Unauthorized Practice of Law

Thursday’s decision in Salazar v. Majestic Realty Co., by California Court of Appeal Justice Helen Bendix, joined by Justices Frances Rothschild and Gregory Weingart, dealt with plaintiff’s attempt to leaflet at large privately owned shopping centers. The California Supreme Court has (rightly or wrongly) held that the California Constitution protects such a right; so the court ended up applying pretty much the same rule (to oversimplify slightly) as to leafletting on public sidewalks. And the court held that plaintiffs’ leaflets are indeed protected, reversing a trial court’s decision to the contrary:

We disagree with the trial court that plaintiff’s leafletting constitutes the unauthorized provision of legal advice such that it is not entitled to constitutional protection.

Plaintiff’s first leaflet stated, inter alia, “Men are not legally and financially responsible for supporting a child that a woman chooses to have,” and invited men to attend plaintiff’s meetings to “Learn the truth. Learn your rights.” His second leaflet described his meetings, stating, “I give a [one-hour] pre[sen]ta[t]ion in Riverside to teach men that they do have the r[e]pr[o]ductive right to choo[s]e too and why they are not r[e]sponsible for supporting a woman’s r[e]pr[o]ductive d[ec]i[s]ion to have a child.”

The trial court cited Howard v. Superior Court (Cal. App. 1975), which states, “The constitutional protection for free speech does not extend to the delivery of legal or medical or financial advice by persons not licensed to give such advice.” The court also cited Business and Professions Code section 6126, which provides, “Any person advertising or holding himself or herself out as practicing or entitled to practice law or otherwise practicing law who is not an active licensee of the State Bar, or otherwise authorized pursuant to statute or court rule to practice law in this state at the time of doing so, is guilty of a misdemeanor ….” The court found plaintiff’s statement that men were not financially responsible for the care of their children was not only legal advice but also inaccurate legal advice and cited Penal Code section 270, which criminalizes the failure to provide necessary care to one’s child. In light of these authorities, the court concluded plaintiff’s leaflets are not constitutionally protected.

Plaintiff’s leaflets cannot fairly be construed as offering legal advice. The dictionary definition of “advice” is a “recommendation regarding a decision or course of conduct.” Although arguably the leaflets state plaintiff’s interpretation of the law, the only recommendation the leaflets make is that the recipient attend plaintiff’s presentation and/or contact him for further information. The leaflets do not advise recipients to cease paying child support. Rather, they present plaintiff’s views on the law and invite the recipient to learn more at plaintiff’s meetings….

Howard does not suggest that merely stating one’s interpretation of the law is unlicensed legal advice and therefore unprotected speech. Howard‘s concern, rather, was with unlicensed individuals who offer to perform legal services, including the delivery of legal advice, such as advice on procuring marital dissolution. If plaintiff in his leaflets had offered to assist men in the legal process of challenging their child support obligations, this case arguably might be analogous to Howard. But plaintiff’s leaflets offer nothing more than a future meeting at which more information will be provided.

To be clear, had the leaflets urged men not to pay their child support obligations based on plaintiff’s interpretation of the law, those leaflets still would not necessarily have constituted the unlicensed provision of legal advice. People v. Landlords Professional Services (Cal. App. 1989) concluded that it did not constitute the unauthorized practice of law for a nonlawyer to provide “a manual, even a detailed one containing specific advice, for the preparation of an unlawful detainer action and the legal incidents of an eviction” so long as the nonlawyer “did not personally advise the client with regard to his specific case.” We, however, need not address this hypothetical issue given our conclusion that plaintiff’s leaflets do not advise any action other than to attend plaintiff’s meetings.

Defendants argue plaintiff intends to provide “face-to-face” legal advice to men at the Centers and at his meetings. Defendants identify no evidence that plaintiff has, or intends to provide legal advice to people at the Centers, nor do they identify evidence regarding the content of any meeting outside the Centers, apart from the brief description in the leaflets themselves. Indeed, according to plaintiff’s deposition testimony, he has yet to hold a meeting because no one has responded to his leaflets. We thus do not have the record on which to base a decision on whether the advertised meetings would cross the line into unlicensed legal advice….

This is similar to the conclusion by the Washington Court of Appeals in September that a doctor can’t be disciplined by the Washington Medical Commission for blog posts “downplaying the severity of the COVID pandemic, promoting the use of ivermectin over a vaccine, and criticizing the government’s response to the pandemic.” It’s also why I can blog about the law of states other than California, even though I’m only licensed to practice law in California (though I hope my blog posts are more accurate than Salazar’s comments appeared to have been, at least based on the court opinion).

I. Gill Sperlein represents plaintiff; Marc Randazza and Alex Shepard (Randazza Legal Group, PLLC) also filed an amicus brief supporting plaintiff on this point.