/* The final section on attorney's ethical rules. */
Comment
To assist the public in obtaining legal services, lawyers should be allowed to make known their services not only through reputation but also through organized information campaigns in the form of advertising. The public's need to know about legal services can be fulfilled in part through advertising which provides the public with useful, factual information about legal rights and needs and the availability and terms of legal services from a particular lawyer or law firm. This need is particularly acute in the case of persons of moderate means who have not made extensive use of legal services. Nevertheless, certain types of advertising by lawyers create the risk of practices that are misleading or overreaching and can create unwarranted expectations by laymen untrained in the law. Such advertising can also adversely affect the public's confidence and trust in our judicial system.
In order to balance the public's need for useful information, the state's need to ensure a system by which justice will be administered fairly and properly, as well as the state's need to regulate and monitor the advertising practices of lawyers, and a lawyer's right to advertise the availability of the lawyer's services to the public, this rule permits public dissemination of information concerning a lawyer's name or firm name, address, and telephone number; the kinds of services the lawyer will undertake; the basis on which the lawyer's fees are determined, including prices for specific services and payment, and credit arrangements; a lawyer's foreign language ability; names of references and, with their consent, names of clients regularly represented; and other factual information that might invite the attention of those seeking legal assistance.
Television is now one of the most powerful media for conveying information to the public, a blanket prohibition against television advertising, therefore, would impede the flow of information about legal services to many sectors of the public. However, the unique characteristics of electronic media, including the pervasiveness of television and radio, the ease with which these media are abused, and the passiveness of the viewer or listener, make the electronic media especially subject to regulation in the public interest. Therefore, greater restrictions on the manner of television and radio advertising are justified that might be appropriate for advertisements in the other media. To prevent abuses, including potential interferences with the fair and proper administration of justice and the creation of incorrect public perceptions or assumptions about the manner in which our legal system works, and to promote the public's confidence in the legal profession and this country's system of justice while not interfering with the free flow of useful information to prospective users of legal services, it is necessary also to restrict the techniques used in television and radio advertising.
Paragraphs (b) and (e) of this rule are designed to ensure that the advertising is not misleading and does not create unreasonable or unrealistic expectations about the results the lawyer may be able to obtain in any particular case, and to encourage a focus on providing useful information to the public about legal rights and needs and the availability and terms of legal services. Thus, the rule allows all lawyer advertisements in which the lawyer personally appears to explain a legal right, the services the lawyer is available to perform, and the lawyer's background and experience.
The prohibition in paragraph (b) against any background sound other than instrumental music precludes, for example, the sound of sirens or car crashes and the use of jingles. Paragraph 4-7.1(d) forbids use of testimonials or endorsements from clients or anyone else. Paragraph (e) prohibits dramatizations in any advertisement, including those appearing on the electronic media. This is intended to preclude the use of scenes creating suspense, scenes containing exaggerations or situations calling for legal services, scenes creating consumer problems through characterization and dialogue ending with the lawyer solving the problem, and the audio or video portrayal of an event or situation. While informational illustrations may attract attention to the advertisement and help potential clients to understand the advertisement, self-laudatory illustrations are inherently misleading and thus prohibited. As an example, a drawing of a fist, to suggest the lawyer's ability to achieve results, would not be informational and would be barred.
Regardless of medium, a lawyer's advertisement should provide only useful, factual information presented in a nonsensational manner. Advertisements utilizing slogans or jingles, or oversized electronic and neon signs or sound trucks, fail to meet these standards and diminish public confidence in the legal system.
/* Which is not binding since it is only in a comment. */
The disclosure required by paragraph (d) of this rule is designed to encourage the informed selection of a lawyer. As provided in rule 4-7.3, a prospective client is entitled to know the experience and qualifications of any lawyer seeking to represent the prospective client. The required disclosure would be ineffective if it appeared in an advertisement so briefly or minutely as to be overlooked or ignored. This in print advertisements, the type size used for the disclosure must be sufficient to cause the disclosure to be conspicuous; in recorded advertisements the disclosure must be spoken at a speed that allows comprehension by the average listener. This rule does not specify the exact type size to be used for the disclosure or the exact speed at which the disclosure may be spoken; good faith and common sense should serve as adequate guides for any lawyer.
Neither this rule nor rule 4-7.4 prohibits communications authorized by law, such as notice to members of a class in class action litigation.
This rule applies to advertisements and written communications directed at prospective clients and concerning a lawyer's or law firm's availability to provide legal services. The rule does not apply to communications between lawyers, including brochures used for recruitment purposes.
Paying others to recommend a lawyer
A lawyer is allowed to pay for advertising permitted by this rule, but otherwise is not permitted to pay or provide other tangible benefits to another person for procuring professional work. However, a legal aid agency or prepaid legal services plan may pay to advertise legal services provided under it auspices. Likewise, a lawyer may participate in lawyer referral programs and pay the usual fees charged by such programs, subject, however, to the limitations imposed by rule 4-7.8. Paragraph (q) does not prohibit paying regular compensation to an assistant, such as a secretary or advertising consultant, to prepare communications permitted by this rule.
Paying others to recommend a lawyer
A lawyer is allowed to pay for advertising permitted by this rule, but otherwise is not permitted to pay or provide other tangible benefits to another person for procuring professional work. However, a legal aid agency or prepaid legal services plan may pay to advertise legal services provided under its auspices. Likewise, a lawyer may participate in lawyer referral programs and pay the usual fees charged by such programs, subject, however, to the limitations imposed by rule 4-7.8. Paragraph (q) does not prohibit paying regular compensation to an assistant, such as a secretary or advertising consultant, to prepare communications permitted by this rule.
RULE 4-7.3 LEGAL SERVICE INFORMATION
(a) Each lawyer or law firm that advertises his, her, or its availability to provide legal services shall be available in written form for delivery to any potential client:
(1) A factual statement detailing the background, training and experience of each lawyer or law firm.
(2) If the lawyer or law firm claims special expertise in the represe
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