Proper Advertising vs Proper Behavior Personal Injury Lawyers

A little boy was in a car accident and experienced a serious brain damage which is the reason why his mother received no less than three mailed solicitations from different lawyers asking how much she would like to get out of this case. Do you think many upset parents find this inquiry offensive? Definitely, no questions asked. Will the legal profession be discredited if such methods of drumming up business by modern style ambulance are used?

Definitely, it will. A modest and a welcomed initiative is what the Florida Supreme Court decided to try as a response to the situation, this act by the Supreme Court was urged by the state’s bar association. 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. 

The constitutionality of the rule however was challenged by a referral service whose main business is to look for clients to be referred to personal injury lawyers at https://kashlegal.com/lancaster/ by soliciting accident victims and their families. The Florida rule was knocked over by the US District Court in Tampa, Florida wherein they stated that the lawyer’s rights to freedom of speech under the First Amendment as applied to the States through the 14th Amendment has been violated. For the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, the US Court of Appeals agreed although based on how it perceives that US Supreme Court precedents over the past two decades, those lawyers who are granted have the right to advertise their services.

Fortunately, the US Supreme Court, on a 5 to 4 vote has upheld the Florida rule. There were two convincing justifications for the implementation of the Florida rule according to a female justice who was writing about the case. The first one is protecting victims from personal injury lawyers or their authorized agents who are quite pushy and disturbing when it comes to the victim’s privacy and tranquility.

The goal of the second one is to put off the rage with the state licensed legal profession for direct solicitation already has happened only days after accidents occurred. As a form of commercial speech, advertising is subject to reasonable government regulations according to the lady justice. A lot of channels would not be able to transmit information about attorneys because as what she said, the Florida rule imposes a mild restriction on this.

With this, she said that Florida does permit lawyers to advertise in newspapers, television, or through the radio, basically in any other media. Lawyers may however rent space on billboards and other forms of outdoor advertisements. To the general population or to some discrete segments of society is where they may also send their letters to.

Readily available is the telephone directory wherein you can find lawyers’ telephone numbers under the listing of lawyers.

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