• 02
  • March
    2010
Dianne says, Until 1977 there was very little lawyer advertising because most states prohibited lawyers from "promoting themsekves.:"  However with the Bates v. Arizona case the Supreme Court held that commercial speech could be protected under the first amendment and the flood gates opened!  Now we see lawyer advertising on television, at the movies, in magazines, in the newspaper and anywhere else a lawyer can imagine a market.  Some lawyer advertising is slightly deceptive wfor instance when the law firm of a lawyer who has been dead for several years advertises using the dead lawyer's name and likeness in the ad.  Or when a firm promoting their abilities as disability lawyers pictures a lawyer sitting in a wheelchair. Other forms of deception aren't really deceptive but they do give a wrong impression.  For instance when you hear the phrase "most successful" you naturally think that that firm wins more of their cases than anyone else.  But does that firm take every case?  Does that firm tell a client that they don't have a case at the last minute and withdraw from represedntation before  the hearing is scheduled?