{"id":4760,"date":"2004-03-16T18:58:13","date_gmt":"2004-03-16T22:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/03\/16\/bbb-ad-torched-by-colorado-ba"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:58:56","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:58:56","slug":"bbb-ad-torched-by-colorado-bar-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/03\/16\/bbb-ad-torched-by-colorado-bar-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"BBB Ad Torched by Colorado Bar Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"laughing “You inherited a fortune . . You hired a lawyer . . Now it’s his fortune.”<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>It was a pretty funny lawyer joke, but two Colorado bar groups were so offended that\u00a0they’ve forced the <\/span>Denver\/Boulder branch<\/span><\/a> of the Better Business Bureau<\/strong> to pull\u00a0its 15-second “check with us first”\u00a0 tv ad from the air.\u00a0 The BBB’s sin: daring to suggest that consumers might obtain useful information about lawyers from the Bureau.<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to an <\/span>article<\/span><\/a> from the Rocky Mountain News<\/em>, the <\/span>Denver<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Colorado<\/span><\/a> bar associations, brought their complaints before the BBB’s new advertising and ethics committee, complaining that “the ad was offensive and demeaning to their profession.”\u00a0\u00a0(“BBB pulls ad after flak from attorney groups,” by John Accola, 03-13-04) (thanks to <\/span>W.O<\/span><\/a>. for the pointer)\u00a0 The article reports that,<\/span><\/div>\n
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“With 12 members voting, the committee advised the BBB to pull the ad and reword the narrative. One suggestion called for revising the “You hired a lawyer” line to ‘You hired the wrong<\/em> lawyer.'”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The local BBB president complied, noting:<\/span><\/p>\n

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“I don’t agree with them . . . but I don’t want to go around ticking people off,” said Jean Herman, president and chief executive of the Denver\/Boulder BBB. “I have to respect their opinion.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As if this doesn’t make the legal profession look bad enough, <\/span>Greg Martin<\/span><\/a>, deputy executive director of both bar groups, declared that they\u00a0would not<\/em> even approve the modified narrative, “You hired the wrong<\/em> lawyer,” saying <\/span><\/div>\n
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“[O]ur goal was not to have that ad on TV anymore.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0..\"smallest <\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The RMN <\/em>article states, “Martin said poking fun of bad lawyers isn’t the same as disparaging, say, bad plumbers. . . . The BBB isn’t in a position to judge crooked lawyers from the honest ones, Martin said.”<\/span><\/div>\n
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\"smallest “For them to hold themselves out as having some special knowledge about attorneys is really inappropriate.”<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Martin emphasized that Colorado’s lawyers are highly regulated.\u00a0 I bet he did not<\/em> point out, as <\/span>HALT<\/span><\/a> did in its 2002 <\/span>Report Card<\/span><\/a>, that Colorado has “the seventh worst investigation rate in the nation,” looking into less than 10% of grievances filed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n