The question of whether law firms should actively advertise themselves on television, radio, billboards and other places often comes up to us. In fact, we recently received a complimentary letter praising these informational columns and lambasting attorneys whose television and billboard advertising make them seem like €ambulance-chasers€. The old joke is that an attorney, upon being called an €ambulance-chaser€, replied: €I am very insulted that you would call me an ambulance-chaser, I always get there before the ambulance.€

Seriously, prior to the 1977 United States Supreme Court decision in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, it was unethical/illegal for attorneys to advertise. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of lawyers to advertise ruling that this commercial speech was protected under the First Amendment. Before that time, attorneys obtained business from other attorneys, doctors, friends, or individuals. Since other attorneys and doctors, etc., were familiar with who the good attorneys were in their field, this seemed to work fairly well. However, with the restriction lifted, came TV advertising, Yellow Page advertising, and billboard advertising. Some attorneys still feel that picking an attorney on the basis of a TV ad or billboard is a joke. Others feel that it is a good way to get their message out to the unsophisticated. Yet, another percentage of attorneys feel that the hucksterism of some billboard and TV advertising damages the integrity of the profession.
The author of this article Richard D. Schuler is a Partner of Schuler, Halvorson, Weisser & Zoeller, P.A., and is a Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney.. If you want to learn more about how we view advertising by law firms, or many other real world legal issues in cases of car accidents, slip and fall cases, airplane accidents, medical malpractice, nursing home and ALF abuse, wrongful death, truck accidents, premises liability, motorcycle accidents, boating accidents, products liability, toxic/mass tort litigation, insurance litigation, negligent security and other personal injury cases in West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie and throughout the state of Florida, you need to contact a firm with a level of expertise that yields results. That firm is Schuler, Halvorson, Weisser & Zoeller at http://www.shw-law.com.
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