By Espersina Hudinas
The mother of the little boy who suffered from a terrible brain damage because of a car accident received a lot of mailed solicitation from various lawyers asking how much she would like to get out of this case. Would many distressed parents find being targeted by this sort of intrusive inquiry offensive? No questions asked, definitely, parents would feel very much offended. Will the legal profession be discredited if such methods of drumming up business by modern style ambulance are used?
Absolutely, yes. At the urging of the state's bar association, the Florida Supreme Court decided to try to do something positive about the situation by taking a relatively modest and welcome initiative, in response to this situation. This initiative clearly states that there should be a waiting period of 30 days before any personal injury lawyer can solicit and send mails to victims of accidents or to their relatives.
Looking for clients by soliciting accident victims to be referred to these personal injury lawyers is the main business of a referral service that is why when this rule came up, this referral service was greatly challenged. The US District Court in Tampa, Florida was declared as an intrusion on lawyer's rights to freedom of speech, under the First Amendment as applied to the States through the 14th Amendment this court also overturned the Florida rule. The 11th Circuit in Atlanta of the US Court of Appeals agreed but based on its interpretation of US Supreme Court examples over the last 20 years, those lawyers granted the right to advertise their services may only do so.
It was fortunate enough that the US Supreme Court upheld Florida rule on a 5 to 4 vote. A female justice writing about the case said that there were two convincing justifications for the implementation of the Florida rule. Protecting the privacy of personal injury victims and their loved ones against the intrusive and unheeded contact by personal injury lawyers or authorized agents is the first one.
The practice of solicitation took place only days after the accident, which is why the second one aims to prevent the state licensed legal profession from getting angry. The lady justice clearly pointed out that advertising, as a form of commercial speech, is subject to reasonable government regulations. The Florida rule restricts the communication of the needed information about attorneys according to her.
Given this, she noted that Florida allows lawyers to broadcast or advertise through any form of media. Lawyers are able to rent space on billboards if they wish and to any other forms of outdoor advertisements. To the general population or to some discrete segments of society is where they may also send their letters to.
As for their contact numbers, you can get it from the listing under lawyers in the telephone directory which is readily available.
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