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Legal opinions In law, (particularly in North America) an opinion (also called consilia) is usually a written explanation by a judge that accompanies their ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles that led them to rule as they did. Opinions are usually published at the direction of the court, and to the extent they contain pronouncements about what the law is and how it should be interpreted, they reinforce, change, establish, or overturn legal precedent. If a court decides that an opinion should be published, the opinion is included in a volume from a series of books called law reports (or reporters in the United States). Another kind of legal opinion is written by attorneys. It is a formal written statement an attorney prepares for a client, stating the lawyer's reasoned belief about what the law is, how a court would interpret it, or how it applies to specific circumstances posed by the client. In the United Kingdom and other common law countries, a legal opinion normally refers to written legal advice on a point of law issued by either a barrister (often referred to as "counsel's opinion") or occasionally a senior government law officer, such as the Attorney General. The latter form of opinion is sometimes made available to the public either because of public pressure (see for example Lord Goldsmith's opinion on the legality of the invasion of Iraq), or because a general clarification of the law is called for (see for example, the Yorke-Talbot slavery opinion).
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