Fla. Bar Website Rules Face Challenge in State High Court

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.

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