Attorney May Sue State Courts Over Advertising Limits

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The New York Sun

A leading First Amendment attorney plans to sue the state court system if it approves new rules that severely limit attorney advertising.

The rules, which leaders of the state courts proposed in June, are intended to put an end to misleading and aggressive attorney advertisements. Some of the proposed rules — such as one that forbids attorneys from soliciting plaintiffs immediately after large-scale disasters — are unlikely to garner much criticism. Other proposed regulations strike members of the plaintiff bar as too restrictive.

In a letter sent to several judges and the Office of Court Administration last week, the attorney, Floyd Abrams, wrote that the proposed rules were unreasonable and “rooted in disdain, if not contempt, for the very notion of lawyer advertising.”

Mr. Abrams said he wrote the letter after being hired by several personal injury attorneys who had formed a group to oppose the proposed rules. The group is called New Yorkers for Free Speech Co. In the letter, Mr. Abrams writes that the lawyers he represents “have determined to proceed with litigation” if the proposed rules are passed.

“It seems to me that the whole tone of this proposal is to treat lawyer advertising as if it were some sort of disease that had to be quarantined rather than a form of speech entitled to significant first amendment attention,” Mr. Abrams said in an interview.

In his three-page letter, Mr. Abrams wrote that many of the proposed rules put unconstitutional limits on what lawyers can say or show in their advertisements. Among the restrictions he finds especially objectionable is the ban on use of images of courtrooms or judges in attorney advertisements.

The state’s Office of Court Administration is soliciting feedback from attorneys on the proposed rules. The period of public comment runs until November 15.

A spokesman for the court system, David Bookstaver, said it would be inappropriate to comment on the “hypothetical lawsuit” threatened in Mr. Abrams’s letter.

Two lawyers Mr. Abrams represents, Jeffrey Lichtman and Andrew Finkelstein, did not return calls for comment.

The criticism of the proposed rules extends beyond members of the plaintiffs’ bar, who often rely on advertising for clients.

Several attorneys who run Web logs have said a literal reading of the proposed rules would equate blogging with advertising and subject it to stringent requirements.

A real estate attorney, Joshua Stein, who submitted a 22 page-letter opposing the rules, said the rules would require attorneys to include disclaimers even in the casual e-mails that inquire about business of the sort that an attorney might send to an old client.


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