Who would trust an attorney that advertises on TV?
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at
8:49 pm
Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker asked:
To me, it borders on unethical and is equal to ambulance chasing. These attorneys seem desperate Cheap Alli for cases, and the commercials just get trashier every day.
To me, it borders on unethical and is equal to ambulance chasing. These attorneys seem desperate Cheap Alli for cases, and the commercials just get trashier every day.
The first thing I’d want is a greedy, blood-thirsty lawyer so unscrupulous that they put grotesque ads on TV to get my business.
If I’m suing some one for damages I want one of those sharks to represent me!!!!
Somone after a pointless law suit designed toonly get money for themselves for doing essencailly nothing? Thats my guess atleast
no
Probably not. But if he could get me a good settlement I might use him.
How do you find a good attorney when you need one? I am not joking.
UPDATE: The Attorneys that advertise on TV are usually “contingency” attorneys. They only get paid if they recover money for you. They typically keep 1/3 to 1/2 of what is collected. They want good cases with high damages. It is pointless for them to bring “frivolous” lawsuits because they will lose the court costs and not make a penny.
I worked as a Paralegal for many different kinds of attorneys for a number of years. If anybody has a reason to **** attorneys it’s me. But having worked in the legal system, the contingency attorney is the only person whose going to try and help you when you get hurt. Or are you going to hire a top drawer law firm at $250 to $700 dollars per hour?
Attorneys are like sharks, they serve a necessary role in the legal “ecosystem.”
why buy a car from a dealer who advertises?
why buy groceries that are advertised as on “sale”?
why trust a hospital that runs adds about preventive care?
those who are in business tend to advertise, word of mouth advertising only goes so far.
It is perfectly ethical to advertise on television, or in print. What is frequently unethical is the content of the advertisement(s). Each jurisdiction has specific rules for what an attorney must put in their ads and what they must NOT put in their ads. Attorneys may also MAIL advertisements to you, and may even search public records (ambulance chasing!) in order to get your name and address so that they may send advertisements to you. Again, the rules of each jurisdiction vary. Please look at the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (2007). Most states use the Model Rules either in part or in whole, and all attorneys in the USA should be familiar with them. Particularly, Rule 7.2 governs the content of advertisements.
Lawyers who advertise on TV in big cities have so much business that they turn away much of it.
I do not know how letting the public know your personality and that you have services to offer is “ambulance chasing”.
I think you are confusing lawyers with the professionals of old. It used to be that lawyers and doctors belonged to a brotherhood and had plenty of work to go around. It was a gentlemen profession open to only the exceptional.
Now, law is not as much a profession as it is a business. The brotherhood of lawyers has gotten so large that instead of gently working with one another, we are competing against each other. Every year tens of thousands of new lawyer enter the work force.
Let me ask you, do you want lawyers who make back room deals as part of a good old boy network while they keep up an appearance of propriety to the public at large?
Or
Do you prefer lawyers to be at each other’s necks fighting for their clients in order to earn their money like we have more of today?
We have turned away from the day of the professional in law and medicine and become instead a corporate world intent on competition.
It used to be that lawyers and doctors could not advertise at all. These professionals wanted to keep the people ignorant that they had a choice. Lawyers wanted the people to think all lawyers were equally qualified, meanwhile many of them engaged in price fixing and other monopolistic practices.
The changes in advertising rules allowing lawyers to advertise came from a few lawyers who felt their constitutional right of speech was being impinged and their ability to get clients was being negatively affected by the good old boys who had cornered the market.
Does this at all change your perspective?
When you see a lawyer advertising on TV, that lawyer may be too busy to do a good job for you. But then again, that lawyer also has a lot of experience and a reputation to maintain.
I personally would not hire a lawyer who advertises on TV without knowing more about them, but then I myself am a lawyer and know enough professionals to know which ones are good and which ones are not so good.
I think that if someone is “desperate for business”, they are certainly not going to be able to afford a commercial, especially on television. How else would you suggest they get their name out there? They are running a business just like every other place running commercials are doing. I just don’t see the problem, but that’s just my opinion.