Can you be held responsible for giving somebody bad legal advice?

Question

Can you be held responsible for giving legal advice to someone and it turns out the advice you gave was illegal, hurt the person, sent them to jail, or put them ina bad financial situation? Assume these things though: the person who gave the advice never claimed to be a layer, have a degree, or certification, but did claim he knew what he was talking about. The person has no personal relationship with the person he gave the advice to. And the person who gave the advice had no intentions to harm the person they talked to in any way

Answer 1

Possibly.  It is not malpractice, but if you counsel and encourage someone to commit a crime, you could be charged with aiding and abetting the crime.  

Answer 2

No one can be held responsible because it is soley the person seeking the infomations fault. The one seeking legal advise should have done so

through a profesional attorney.

Answer 3

No.  If someone listens to bad advice from a non attorney and takes it, they get to live with it.

Answer 4

If a preacher says to his congregation to give all their money to him because he truly believes he can solve all their problems and the congregation does it, can the preacher be in trouble when the followers go bankrupt?  Of course not.  Philosopher Søren Aabye Kierkegaard believed that every person is alone in their own choice--i.e. ultimately responsible for the choices made.  I agree with him.  If someone tells me what to do and I am not paying for it (e.g. doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc.), then I am the one who has to live with the consequences.  Even if the advisor had the best intentions in the world, they are not responsible.