Case Law & Court Rules

In Re Anonymous, No. 45S00-1301-DI-33 (IND, April 11, 2014) On April 11, 2014 the Indiana Supreme Court concluded that an Indiana attorney (whose name was not disclosed – “Anonymous”) should be privately reprimanded because of his affiliation with a referral website (“Law Tigers”) that posted testimonials and distributed promotional material that did not contain an […]

In 2013 Florida adopted new rules on lawyer advertising that impose restrictions on websites and blogs. In particular, statements in these media must be “objectively verifiable.” A lawsuit filed December 10 challenges the constitutionality of the rules under the First Amendment. The complaint includes a detailed history of Florida’s broad restrictions on lawyer advertising.   Follow us on& […]

Hunter v. Virginia State Bar, 744 S.E.2d 611 (2013), deals with the question of whether blogs are subject to the rules of professional conduct. Attorney Hunter, a criminal defense lawyer, wrote a blog on his firm website discussing recent cases of interest in Virginia, most of which were cases Hunter successfully handled. The Virginia State […]

On February 28, 2013, the Supreme Court of Virginia found that a lawyer’s blog can be considered potentially misleading commercial speech – and thus lawyer advertising – and be regulated by the Virginia State Bar. The posts predominately described cases handled by the lawyer himself where he had received a favorable result for his client. […]

Lawyers Cannot Misrepresent Their Amount of Experience, Kinds of Expertise, Availability of Locations and the Like in Their Websites, Even if the Website is Up Only for a Short Time On May 9, 2011, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued a decision in which it publicly reprimanded a lawyer, imposing a fine of $1,000, and […]