IANAL

IANAL is a Usenet and chat abbreviation (acronym) for "I am not a lawyer". A related abbreviation, TINLA, stands for "This is not legal advice" and may be used by either non-lawyers seeking to avoid accusations of unauthorized practice of law or lawyers clarifying that they do not have enough information to provide situation-specific advice and are not making any recommendation to the particular addressee of their remarks.

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.

Origin and usage

The term appears to be inspired by a 1980s commercial for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup, in which two spokesmen successively pitched the over-the-counter medication with the line, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV." The spokesmen were soap opera actors Chris Robinson (who played Dr. Rick Webber on General Hospital) and Peter Bergman (who played Dr. Cliff Warner on All My Children). The transfer from doctor to lawyer is an example of a snowclone. The term IANAL is reported to have been common on Usenet by the late 1980s and early 1990s.