Legal Ethics
New Attorney Ad Rules for La. Lawyers as of Dec. 1
Posted Jul 24, 2008, 05:14 pm CST
By Martha Neil
New advertising standards for Louisiana lawyers are slated to go into effect on December 1, but some practitioners feel they could still using a bit of tweaking.
For the first time, the new rules approved by the Louisiana Supreme Court will require prior approval of lawyer advertising, by a Louisiana state bar committee, if lawyers want to be protected against possible disciplinary action. However, that isn't what is troubling those who see issues in the new advertising standards, reports the Times-Picayune.
Instead, some lawyers are concerned about the extent to which standards seemingly could be extended beyond misleading ads to apply to questions of personal taste and free speech. "Background sounds," for instance, are reportedly banned under the new rules.
Morris Bart, a New Orleans personal injury lawyer known for his "One Call, That's All" slogan, is among those troubled by the new rules.
"While I and every other attorney would agree that commercials can't be false, deceptive and misleading, the difficulty comes in that you can't regulate the style of ads; that gets into a matter of taste, a very subjective issue," he says.
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