The bill that would ban all lawyer ads soliciting litigation “has apparently stalled in the Florida Legislature after its sponsor told Florida Bar officials he wants time to address concerns before bringing the bill back next year.” Despite major questions about the ban’s constitutionality, The Florida Bar News Online reports the bill likely would have passed in the full Senate.
“Rep. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said he hopes the Bar and the Florida Supreme Court will address lawyer advertising before the 2005 session, or he expects to reintroduce — and pass — legislation that prohibits lawyers from running ads soliciting clients to file lawsuits.”
. . . “In response to the bill, the Bar Board of Governors, at its April 2 meeting, approved a legislative position that the Bar would support legislation imposing the strictest legislation of attorney advertising consistent with constitutional limitations.”
He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld regulations that ban in-person solicitation by attorneys. “I don’t believe someone should be able to go in the back door and solicit by advertising when they can’t go in the front door [with direct solicitation],” the representative said. “I think it is inaccurate to suggest the strength of television advertising is less than a person appearing personally.”
“In many ways it [his bill] is a shot over the bow, it’s a wake-up call to The Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court and attorneys,” Simmons said.
- The danger from not regulating ads is the bad advertisements cause the public to mistrust the legal profession. That creates pressure in the legislature for laws that are ultimately damaging to the profession and the legal system, he said. As an example, Simmons noted that last year’s workers’ compensation changes severely limited the role of attorneys in representing injured workers. An expected review of PIP insurance cases in the next year or so could produce the same result, Simmons said, and there are also efforts to reduce the participation of plaintiff attorneys in personal injury cases.
“The compelling state interest is we need attorneys involved to represent people who are injured and who have their rights violated, and the way things are headed, there is going to be a significant effort to exclude attorneys from all of these processes . . . . “I am watching the burning of Rome, and if the attorneys sit around and fiddle, we’re going to see the end of the legal profession the way we know it.”
Special thanks to Marc Chandler, of Pape & Chandler, for the pointer to this Bar News article.
Postscript: Marc Chandler emailed his own (quite interesting) reply to our query about Pape & Chandler and Rep. Simmons (emphasis added):
“Rep. Simmons is familiar with my firm’s telephone number as he has been quoted in numerous publications as saying that our phone number led him to propose the subject legislation. You might be interested to know that the initial iteration of the legislation proposed by Rep. Simmons had as one of its stated goals a reduction in litigation, but incongruously permitted any citizen who saw an “offending” commercial to run to a courthouse and file a lawsuit to claim a $1,000.00 penalty. That wouldn’t “incite litigation” would it?
Our telephone number has been the subject of two bar complaints. The first bar complaint was filed in 2001 by the then president-elect of the Florida Bar (who happens to be a plaintiff’s attorney) and it was dismissed immediately. The second bar complaint was filed by another plaintiff’s attorney who is partners with Willie E. “The Giant Killer” Gary (www.williegary.com) that is currently pending. We are confident that we will prevail, if not at the trial level, certainly at the appellate level. [update: wow, were we ever wrong: see, e.g., fla. high court puts down Pape & Chandler’s Pit Bull (Nov. 11, 2005); U.S.Supreme Court rejects PIT-BULL appeal (March 27, 2006)]
I am a Bostonian and pride myself on my ethical conduct in the courtroom and towards my clients. I have to laugh at the misplaced efforts of the Florida Bar that are done to enhance the image of lawyers in Florida.
s/ Marc Chandler, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Note: As a 3L, Yabut asked his Professional Responsibility professor back in 1975: “If advertising is so bad, why is General Mills more respected by the public than the Attorney General?” Result: my worse law school grade.