florida attorney advertising

Advertising in Florida by attorneys is regulated by the Florida Bar Association.  Our ad agency works with many law firms so we always have to keep current on the latest rules and regulations regarding advertising for lawyers.  We find that many attorneys have websites which are in clear violation of the latest rules on attorney advertising.  Many Florida law offices select a specific area of the law and focus on that one area and consequently they are often not as aware of the regulations they are violating.

In the past The Florida Bar Association set guidelines on TV Advertising for lawyers and maybe the regulations weren't followed as well as they liked. Now the Florida Bar Association wants to see a script of a TV commercial before the commercial is produced. One of the things the Bar looks for is anything that might be misunderstood by the public as a promise. For example in a TV commercial a lawyer cannot say "We can help". The problem is with the word "can" which can be misinterpreted as a promise that the law firm WILL be able to solve the potential clients problem. So in a case like this the Bar would want the lawyer to say "We may be able to help".

Another thing a Florida lawyer is not allowed to do is to have an actor in the commercial. The only way that an actor is allowed is if you clearly state in the commercial that this is a non-attorney spokesperson.

All of these things relate ONLY to attorneys and law firms in the state of Florida. Other states may have more regulation or less regulation on how law offices are allowed to market their legal services.

In general attorneys that deal with the general public will advertise on TV.  For example personal injury attorneys will advertise on TV because their clients could be anyone in the general public.

If a law firm works in legal matters related to Florida business law then it is not likely that they would advertise on TV.  TV advertising works great for most types of business to consumer advertising.  However for business to business advertising many corporate attorneys will advertise on the Internet and not on TV.  An attorney who wants to advertise on the internet might look for a website that already ranks well and buy a banner ad for a reasonable monthly fee.  This website sells advertising space to law firms that deal in Florida business law.

Although we see many types of businesses use trade show displays it is not often that we see any Lawyers as exhibitors in trade shows.  Many of the local chambers of commerce will have an after hours trade show.  All types of business owners attend these events and we almost never see attorneys as exhibitors.  The Florida Bar Association advertising rules cover TV, radio, Internet ads, websites, print ads, social networking websites, video sharing sites, direct mail, direct emails but we don't see any regulation on trade shows.  This might be a good marketing opportunity for attorneys.