When are advisory rulings ever not &quot;private legal advice&quot;?
<p>I asked my state board of counseling professionals for an advisory ruling.  Here is the statute that says I can ask for an advisory ruling from them:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/5/title5sec9001.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/5/title5sec9001.html</a>
"Upon written request of any interested person, an agency (the board in this case) may make an advisory ruling with respect to the applicability of any statute or rule administered by that agency to him or his property or actual state of facts."</p>

<p>They denied my request for advisory ruling on the basis that "I requested private legal advice.  The board does not provide private legal advice."</p>

<p>When is an advisory ruling ever NOT able to be construed as "private legal advice"?</p>

<p>You can appeal any admin ruling (if timely addressed, of course)- however, you can (just a thought if there are no cases giving guidance, or attorney general opinions, etc., out there for you) do a writ of cert - if you have a property interest or some standing to ask the question - you need that 1st but if you have that and it appears you exhausted your admin remedies - you can file a writ of certiorari which is just a thought of a remedy -  given the limited data presented - note, the ruling of you are asking legal advice - I'd need to see the wording in your question but you can appeal that as contrary to the mandate that you can ask such a question -and ideally get it remanded back to them forcing them to answer the question - and usually the back and forth judges will given you insight or remand with instructions that gives insight as to what the ruling should address -   that's how they usually deal with these things -you'll get the legal view one way or the other - just takes time and energy to walk through the procedural steps -correctly  and they will dismiss in a second if you failed to follow procedural steps - </p>

unlicensed-practice