New York Decision Regarding Attorney Ad Rules
I wanted to alert everyone to an article posted today in the New York Law Journal entitled, “N.Y. Federal Judge Strikes Down Many New Attorney Ad Rules.” To access the article you need to register with the New York Law Journal; however, registration and the article are free.
As this decision demonstrates, there is clearly tension between the mutually admirable goals of, on the one hand, getting consumers the information they need in hiring a lawyer, and on the other, preventing lawyer advertising that may be misleading or otherwise damaging to the legal profession. Avvo has been pulled into this debate a bit, as commentators ponder Avvo’s place within the various states’ attorney advertising rules. Dennis Kennedy raised the issue during our This Week in Law podcast and Gary Blankenship at the Florida Bar News has written about it here and here .
Interestingly, according to the New York Law Journal article, Greg Beck of Public Citizen litigated the New York ad rules case. Greg also wrote a blog post regarding how Avvo fits into states’ advertising rules entitled, “Is it Unethical to Match Consumers with Lawyers Online?” Greg’s post is very balanced and raises some interesting points regarding Avvo. In particular, he says, “But critics should keep in mind that websites like [Avvo] have at least the potential to provide consumers valuable and badly needed assistance in selecting a lawyer. Currently, many consumers are forced to choose an attorney, essentially at random, from the phone book. Indeed, the FTC has written to some of the states prohibiting legal matching services to explain how they are good for consumers.”
It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out hopefully we all be able to find a good balance that gets consumers the information they need while preserving the integrity of the legal profession.
Mark
