Board Review Committee on Professional Ethics approved amendments to the lawyer advertising rules
Information taken from floridabar.org:
“Notice: The Board Review Committee on Professional Ethics approved amendments to the lawyer advertising rules, subchapter 4-7, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar 
, on April 25, 2011. The committee will make its final report and recommendations to The Florida Bar Board of Governors at its meeting on Friday, May 27, 2011 in Key West, Florida. Amendments that are approved by The Florida Bar Board of Governors will be filed with the Supreme Court of Florida on or about July 5, 2011. Any questions or comments should be made to Elizabeth Clark Tarbert, Ethics Counsel, The Florida Bar, 651 E. Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida, 32399-2300 or eto@flabar.org.”
It is starting to look like we may actually reach a final verdict on this matter yet. Of course, we were all thinking along those very same lines during the summer of 2010.
At this juncture, the Florida Bar’s rules dictate that the appropriate disclaimer placed on a page with out-of-compliance material is considered ok for Attorney and Lawyer websites. This may change in July when a final verdict is reached.
In either case, our website analysis services will help you identify offending material on your website. We will recommend action steps and help out in any way we can. When the Florida Supreme Court makes their final (hopefully!) ruling, Florida Law Tools will be by your side!
In an effort to help Florida Law Firms and Attorneys deal with the hassle of compliance, we have decided to offer our software licenses FREE OF CHARGE!! We must charge for services such as installation, website analysis, and web design, however the Web Disclaimer Software is now FREE for Florida Law Firms and Attorneys.
We understand that the new rules are under a lot of scrutiny and it’s unclear as of yet how the situation will pan out. One of the major gripes about the new rules is the tremendous amount of money it will cost Florida Law Firms. Regardless of whether the rules are approved or denied, all it costs you is a few seconds to fill out this request form. After that, we’ll send you a copy of our Web Disclaimer Software. You can just save it on your hard drive and install it when you need it.
To request a copy of our software (either php or asp version) simply fill out the form on our website, floridalawtools.com.
Please do contact us if there’s anything we can do to help with your firm’s website. We have over 10 years of professional web design experience and extensive expertise in dealing with Florida Law Firms.
Kindest Regards,
Wesley Black
Florida Law Tools
Proposed Florida Bar rules for web advertising would require law firms to spend millions of dollars redoing their existing sites, could push clients to choose law firms in other states, and violate the First Amendment.
Those are just a few of the objections submitted by eight large law firms that banded together to fight the proposal and submitted a 66-page comment to the Florida Supreme Court. The deadline for comments was Monday.
The Florida Bar has until Sept. 7 to respond.
The law firms protesting the new rules are Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod, Carlton Fields, Foley & Lardner, Jorden Burt, Holland & Knight, Hunton & Williams, Weil Gotshal & Manges, and White & Case. The Washington-based consumer advocacy group Public Citizen also sued the Bar last year over the proposed rules.
Facing protests and threats of more lawsuits, the Bar postponed new rules that were to take effect July 1 to regulate law firm websites. The rules would prohibit online testimonials, case summaries, and “deceptive, misleading, manipulative” or confusing audio or visual content. The Bar, facing protests that the rules were vague and unfair, offered a compromise that would allow existing sites to be viewed if visitors clicked a disclaimer box.
Following strong objections, the Bar exempted the American Civil Liberties Union and other nonprofit legal groups from the rules, stating they do not promote commercial speech.
Read the complete story on law.com…
http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202470389291
“A Bar committee is planning to complete a Supreme Court-ordered review of Bar advertising and marketing rules and policies in the coming year.
Board of Governors member Carl Schwait told the board last month the Board Review Committee on Professional Ethics, which he chairs, plans to finish studying ad-related rules by the board’s May meeting.
He also updated the board on a pending federal lawsuit challenging Bar advertising rules, following a ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June.
The Florida Supreme Court in a December 2007 ruling on advertising rules ordered the Bar to undertake a further study that encompassed both advertising and marketing. The court said the Bar should be guided by comments filed in the ad case by Tampa attorney Bill Wagner. He contended the advertising rules should be viewed in the larger context and account for law-firm marketing, not just advertising.
“We will have completed by the May 2011 meeting a complete review as the Supreme Court has directed of our advertising rules,” Schwait said.”
http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/jnnews01.nsf/8c9f13012b96736985256aa900624829/269dbdf2b97afb838525777600659352!OpenDocument
“BOSTON – Facing a lawsuit, backlash from law firms and non-profits, and criticism from the Federal Trade Commission, the state of Florida has delayed the implementation of new rules governing online attorney advertising.
The online rules were one component of new legal advertising regulations and were set to take effect on July 1. The rules would have barred summaries of case results, client testimonials and “deceptive, misleading, manipulative” or confusing visual or audio content online.
But the Florida Supreme Court granted a request from the state bar to delay implementation, allowing lawyers to comment on the rules.”
Read the full story:
http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2010/08/02/florida-puts-brakes-on-lawyer-advertising-rules/
Many Florida law firms are in a holding pattern regarding compliance with the yet-to-be-finalized advertising rules. The Florida Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling any day now, at which point Florida attorneys will have just 90 days to comply.
We anticipate that once the ruling is reached, our install techs are going to be up to their ears trying to help Florida law firms with their websites. Thanks to our compliance assurance, there’s really no reason to wait. You can order our software now, we’ll install it for you, and when the ruling is reached, we will make any necessary changes at no extra charge!
We would like to extend a special offer for you early birds out there. Using promotional code EARLYBIRD0610 you can instantly save 15% on our software. Offer expires July 1, 2010.
Don’t waste another minute. Place your order today and beat the rush. [Comply with the Florida Bar advertising rules]
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