Though the economic potential may seem compelling, the Internet raises ethical issues, like the tenuous line between legal information and legal advice and the definition of a lawyer-client relationship where the two may never meet. It also complicates states' jurisdictions in a medium that is effectively borderless. And it is far from clear that the legal profession as a whole will embrace online law as an opportunity rather than a threat. In the 1930's, during an economically depressed era, radio programs giving legal advice were shut down by a flurry of regulation by bar associations that felt threatened by the new medium, said Catherine J. Lanctot, a Villanova law professor who has studied technology and the law. But the function of the association as a national body is mostly advisory.
Most policy is made at the state bar level.
After a Federal District judge in Dallas ruled that a ban could be imposed, the Texas Legislature redefined the unauthorized practice of law to exclude items like software and books that conspicuously state that they are not substitutes for lawyers. So far, there have not been any widespread efforts to regulate online legal activity, except for a few state bar associations that have issued varying opinions about the nature of lawyer-client relationships on the Internet. But Professor Lanctot, an expert on legal ethics, said it was only a matter of time before ethical and economic issues showed up on the radar. Many sites, she said, are skirting a tenuous line between legal information and legal advice, which is the application of law to specific circumstances. To me, that is the worst of both worlds.