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Legal Advertising Benefits Everyone
Legal Advertising Is Constitutionally Protected
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled legal advertising is commercial speech entitled to protection under the First Amendment.
Legal Advertising Improves Legal Pricing
Attorney advertising is one of the best ways to foster price competition in the legal industry, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Legal Advertising Educates Consumers
Severely restricting advertising serves only to restrict the flow of information to consumers. Advertising eliminates ignorance.
Advertising Improves Competition in All Markets
Overly broad restrictions of truthful and non-deceptive information are likely to harm consumers of legal services by denying them useful facts and impeding competition among attorneys.
Advertising Allows Lawyers to Distinguish Themselves
With myriad products and services available, advertising serves to distinguish companies and protects consumers’ right to choose.
Legal Advertising Is Already Regulated
Legal agencies, like most other companies, cannot make false or misleading statements and local bars further regulate the content of legal ads.
Throughout history, various groups have tried to restrict or ban certain forms of advertising for an assortment of reasons. Some restrictions have come as a result of social goals, such as the prohibition of tobacco marketing toward children, while others believe excessive stipulations serve to protect the entrenched interests of a profession.
Sadly, legal advertising has been a victim of both.
Opponents, including some of our fellow attorneys and law firms, charge that legal ads duplicitously convince consumers over their own free will to pursue frivolous and futile legal claims. These same opponents seek refuge from open-market competition by attempting to install superfluous encumbrances to advertisements they find to be “demeaning” and “degrading” to the legal profession.
Lawyers in Defense of Consumer Information staunchly stands in support of its conviction that attorneys, consumers, and the marketplace profoundly benefit from truthful legal advertising.
LIDOCI is not alone in this stance—the Federal Trade Commission opines that legal advertising “is a source of important information to consumers, assists them in making rational purchase decisions, encourages product improvement and innovation, and can lead to lower prices in the marketplace.”
Courts have perpetually ruled harsh restrictions on legal advertising are unconstitutional, including constraints on the legal profession. The articles, resources, and case law cited on this website illuminate the legal and economic case for the non-restriction of legal advertising.
Please support attorneys’ First Amendment rights and the rights of consumers by opposing any bans or unfair restrictions on ethical legal advertising.