- What happened: Take a quick drive down any Texas highway and you’ll be bombarded with billboards advertising personal injury trial lawyers. But this isn’t unique to Texas. This quick read from LAist takes a look at the history and evolution of trial lawyer advertising in Los Angeles
- How we got here: Judges from the California and U.S. Supreme Courts ruled that attorney advertising was a form of commercial speech, protected by the First Amendment.
- The cost of doing business: According to Anna Bager, CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America, the legal services category dominates the almost $9 billion out-of-home advertising industry. Los Angeles has seen tenfold growth in legal services advertising since 2014
- On the other hand: Many are concerned that personal injury trial lawyer ads are contributing to “social inflation,” resulting in settlements that aren’t supported by facts or case law. Go further
- What about Texas: The Texas Supreme Court recently amended its attorney advertising rule to require lawyers to disclose in their ads if a verdict was obtained, but nothing was ever paid.
- This was in response to a billboard claiming a billion-dollar-plus result for a victim of sexual abuse, who later revealed that he never received a dime from the judgment. That information was never mentioned on the billboard.
- Texas also passed a law requiring transparency and certain disclosures in trial lawyer advertising related to prescription drugs.
Read the full article here.