Document Type
Article
Abstract
Since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977 decided Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, attorney advertising, once anathema to the profession, has become tolerated, if not entirely welcome fixture of the landscape. Regulations of attorney advertising have passed the intermediate scrutiny of the Supreme Court on a number of occasions with a recent Supreme Court victory of the Florida Bar over an advertising attorney defining the outer limits of permissible attorney conduct in targeted direct mail advertising. Debate continues on the effect of advertising on the profession. Many argue persuasively that its added economic pressures are converting the practice of law into a business with detrimental effects on clients, and consequently undermining public confidence in the legal system.
With the advent of the Internet, the checked history advertising in the legal profession is poised to take a new turn. The World Wide Web dramatically alters the economics of attorney advertising while expanding its reach. The profession will have to continue efforts to understand this technology in order to preserve high ethical standards and avoid furthering the negative stereotypes of lawyers in public’s estimation. However, to attempt a total disconnection from the Internet is to invite lawyers to render themselves the late 20th century’s equivalent of the buggy whip. The bars of the several states are beginning to respond, however, the issues are dauntingly complex, and changing technology is already threatening to swamp the best-intentioned guidelines.
Recommended Citation
Mark Hankins,
Ambulance Chasers on the Internet: Regulation of Attorney Web Pages,
1 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(1996).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol1/iss1/4