How Personal Injury Lawyers Should Treat Victims
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 parents consider this inquiry as an offensive one because they were asked in a blatantly intrusive manner? Yes, parents would be very much offended by this type of question. Will this kind of method bring disgrace on the legal profession as a whole?
Definitely, yes. The perseverance of the state’s bar association made the Florida Supreme Court to respond to this situation by taking a relatively modest and very much welcome initiative. First, personal injury lawyers have to wait for 30 days before they can directly send mails to victims of accidents or to their relatives, according to this initiative.
The business of a referral service is to look for people who can be referred to these personal injury lawyers and they do this by soliciting accident victims and their family, this fact is then challenged by the new rule. Under the First Amendment as applied to the States through the 14th Amendment, an infringement on lawyer’s rights to freedom of speech was declared by the US District Court in Tampa, Florida which overturned the Florida rule. Although reluctantly, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta agreed on the basis of its interpretation of US Supreme Court precedents over the past two decades, only those who have granted lawyers have the right to advertise their services.
It was fortunate enough that the US Supreme Court upheld Florida rule on a 5 to 4 vote. Two convincing justifications covered the implementation of the Florida rule according to a female justice, while the case is being written. The first one is protecting victims from personal injury lawyers or their authorized agents who are quite pushy and disturbing when it comes to the victim’s privacy and tranquility.
Only days after the accidents happened, direct solicitation takes place which angers the state licensed legal profession ? the second one then aims to prevent this legal profession from getting irritated. The lady justice said that advertising is a form of commercial speech which is subjected to reasonable government regulations. She added that the Florida rule amounts to a relatively mild restriction that leaves untouched the many alternative channels for communicating the necessary information about attorneys.
Given this, she noted that Florida allows lawyers to broadcast or advertise through any form of media. Lawyers may possibly rent spaces on billboards and other forms of outdoor advertisements. They may also address their letters to some discrete segments of society or to the general population.
In the listing under lawyers is where you can find their contact numbers in the telephone directory.
Learn more on the topic of personal injury solicitors. Read this site if you want workcover melbourne information.
Processing your request, Please wait....
