subject: Radio, TV, or Newspaper: Ways on How Lawyers Should Advertise Their Services [print this page] Radio, TV, or Newspaper: Ways on How Lawyers Should Advertise Their Services
The young boy who suffered from a serious brain damage because of a car accident was the reason why his mother received so many mailed solicitations from different lawyers asking the price that she wanted to get out of this case. Would parents find this offensive because they are targeted by this obviously invasive inquiry? Definitely, no questions asked. Will this kind of method bring disgrace on the legal profession as a whole?
Definitely, yes. To respond to this situation, the state's bar association urged the Florida Supreme court to try to do something positive by taking a relatively modest and much welcomed initiative. It announced that personal injury lawyers would have to wait 30 days before they can solicit business by mail directly intended for victims of accidents or their relatives.
Looking for clients by soliciting accident victims to be referred to these personal injury lawyers is the main business of a referral service that is why when this rule came up, this referral service was greatly challenged. Under the First Amendment as applied to the States through the 14th Amendment is lawyer's rights to freedom of speech wherein this right has been violated as what the US District Court in Tampa, Florida declared which overturned the Florida rule. Although reluctantly, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta agreed on the basis of its interpretation of US Supreme Court precedents over the past two decades, only those who have granted lawyers have the right to advertise their services.
Fortunately, the Florida rule has been upheld on a 5 to 4 vote by the US Supreme Court. Came about for the implementation of the Florida rule were two influencing justifications, according to a female justice writing about the case. For personal injury victims to be protected against disturbing unneeded contact by personal injury lawyers or by their authorized agents is the first justification.
The second one is to prevent the outrage with the state licensed legal profession because the practice of direct solicitation occurred only days after accidents. The lady justice clearly pointed out that advertising, as a form of commercial speech, is subject to reasonable government regulations. Also, she added that the needed information about attorneys wouldn't be easily accessed because there is a mild restriction present in the Florida rule.
With this, she said that Florida does permit lawyers to advertise in newspapers, television, or through the radio, basically in any other media. Outdoor advertisements such as spaces on billboards may also be rented by lawyers. They may also send letters to the general population or to some discrete segments of society.
Of course, you can get their contact telephone number from the listing under lawyers in the telephone directory which is readily available.
