IANAL

What does IANAL stand for?

I am not a lawyer

When offering an opinion on a legal matter, forum posters who are not lawyers sometimes use IANAL to say as such. You're most likely to encounter this acronym on Reddit and other popular forums, when reading discussions about contentious issues such as divorce, child custody, finance law, property law, and crime.

IANAL is a signal that, even though someone is providing their take on a legal situation, it is only their best layman's opinion. The person may be knowledgeable on the topic being discussed, but they don't have a law degree, and they want anyone reading their opinion to take that into account.

Example

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure asking state election officials to find fake votes is a crime
A Redditor who is NAL, asking for lawyer's opinions
A Redditor who is NAL, asking for lawyer's opinions

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Updated August 10, 2022

IANAL definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the acronym "IANAL" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

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