Lawyer Advertising Is Not Free!
Ever since attorney John McMahan left the insurance defense firm of Leitner, Williams, Dooley & Napolitan and started using the phrase “The Insider,” the social media outlets have gained a steadily increasing source of revenue from attorneys.
The origin of John’s use of the appealing self-proclaimed title was created by local talk show host Jeff Styles who was also working for an ad agency. The name “Insider” has been purchased from John by two associates in his firm when he retired to Florida because of a serious illness. They have become one of the three or four largest advertisers in the Chattanooga area.
For some time, few lawyers engaged in any competition with John as many clung to the now antiquated idea that lawyer advertising was beneath the dignity of the legal profession.
The Chattanooga television, radio, print, and website markets are being overwhelmed with the never ending competition for the right to represent the injured, maimed, or deceased in any type of accident.
Tennessee’s weak non-solicitation rule of no contact with an injured person for thirty days after the date of the accident is easily circumvented. Law firms without mentioning the specific accident put articles on their websites informing the public of their self-proclaimed expertise in that particular accident area. Another firm suddenly appeared in television and billboard ads on the top of a tractor-trailer shortly after a fatal accident in the Ooltewah area that occurred on June 25, 2015, and resulted in six deaths.
The 2016 advertising revenue in Chattanooga by Kantar Media lists the following numbers spent on lawyer advertising with that agency by the top seven law firms:
1. Wettermark & Keith (Birmingham, Alabama) $1,125,600.00
2. McMahan (The Insiders) $936,400.00
3. Charles Pittman (Huntsville, Alabama) $762,900.00
4. Massey & Associates (Got to get Gary) $423,600.00
5. Warren & Griffin (Best Law Firm?) $300,200.00
6. Eron Epstein (Bankruptcy) $281,400.00
7. Thomas Bible (Bankruptcy) $250,200.00
(THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MONEY SPENT ON OTHER SOCIAL FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVETISING!)
Another fifty (50) law firms locally or out-of-state used Kantar Media’s services to advertise in the Chattanooga market. Said numbers do not reflect any additional funds spent on other areas of social media not handled by Kantar Media.
Obviously advertising works. It gets the attention of those exposed to its message. The lacking piece of the advertising puzzle is that these ads do not in any way address the legal ability and results achieved except in self-laudatory language by the lawyers, professional actors, or clients who have had their cases settled.
There are over 1,200 lawyers in the Chattanooga area. Many are capable of handling the cases solicited by the advertising attorneys. We recommend that you confer with several law firms before you choose to entrust an attorney with a matter that may greatly affect your legal rights.
Hire Local Attorneys
Merchants in the southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia markets are always urging the public to “Buy Local.”
Whether you are referring to buying produce, tangible goods such as an automobile or hiring a law firm to represent the legal interest of you or a loved one, the same principle should apply.
There are between 1,000-1,500 attorneys within a fifty mile radius of Chattanooga.
The vast majority of them do not claim to be “Board Certified,” “Experts” in tractor trailer or motorcycle or asbestos cases and represent that they have obtained a certain amount of money for their clients in settlements (few of the social media advertisers even claim to have won a big judgment in a jury trial).
Local attorneys likewise do not have expensive advertising budgets that they have to pay for such as radio, television, website, billboard, telephone book and other forums of advertisements in the social media.
Yet that same majority of local lawyers are certainly capable of resolving your case just as well as the self-appointed advertising superstars!
A war is going on between the local and out-of-state advertising law firms. They are spending larger amounts to compete with their competition.
Ask yourself the following questions before you select a law firm to represent you in a case:
1. Does the size of their advertising budget cause the law firm to settle your case for less than full value?
2. Are they really qualified to handle your case with a record of jury verdicts going up against tough and well financed lawyers that represent insurance companies?
3. Discuss your case with a local lawyer that doesn’t advertise on radio, television, or billboards.
Talk to several local attorneys before you select one to handle your case. Do not commit to signing a contract of employment before you hire an attorney.
Why Am I Against Deceptive Lawyer Advertising
Please excuse the length of this first blog but I want to let you know my thoughts on the issue. The other articles will be much shorter!
In 1966, I was admitted to the practice of law and took an oath before the Tennessee Supreme Court to uphold the constitutions of the United States and the State of Tennessee and to seek justice for the citizens of Tennessee.
The open solicitation of primarily (but not only) personal injury cases such as takes place today would have gotten a lawyer disciplined and possibly disbarred for life prior to 1977.
In that year the United States Supreme Court rendered the 5-4 decision in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona which allowed attorneys to advertise to the public under the “right to know” principle on the availability of lawyers to handle simple legal matters such as “uncontested divorces, uncontested adoptions, simple personal bankruptcies, and changes of name.”
Justice Blackmun, writing for the 5-4 majority erroneously believed that the legal and judicial professions would self-regulate any abuses of “false, deceptive, and misleading statements or which concerned transactions which are themselves illegal.”
Unfortunately, that has not been the case. While Justice Blackmun may have had noble goals in aspiring to make the legal system more accessible to the general public, he totally forgot to anticipate the creative talents of the advertising community or of a small minority of attorneys, who would not want to take time though the standard methods of acquiring a good reputation and practice by hard work, legitimate results, and a loyal client base. Instead the vocal minority in their quick chase for monetary gain turned to ad agencies and public relations firms to develop advertising programs that appealed to the public’s susceptibility to commercial advertising.
Hamilton County and the State of Tennessee was slow in adopting the new freedom to advertise except for a few lawyers such as Bart Durham in Nashville, Ward Welchel in Knoxville and John Wolfe in Chattanooga who started a financial bonanza for the telephone companies by placing a large ad in the Yellow Pages. This immediately resulted in a panic by personal injury lawyers attempting to gain an advantage by purchasing the biggest ads on the front, middle, and back pages of the telephone book. Whether this led to better legal services for the public or just an economic bonanza for the owners of the ad agencies, telephone company, and a few lawyers is a matter of personal interpretation.
The first real professional advertising campaign was started by attorney John Mc Mahan who was a partner at the Leitner, Warner & Williams firm and was an experienced and capable insurance defense trial attorney.
He employed the services of radio talk show host Jeff Styles, an ad agency moonlighter, and came up with the creative name of “The Insider” touting John’s years of representing insurance companies and knowing how they operated. John could and would try cases and was highly successful before unfortunately contracting a medical condition and having to retire from the practice of law.
The flood gates on legal advertising did not gush open but a few ambitious attorneys started advertising ads on local cable television, radio, websites, billboards, and all forms of social media.
The panic amongst lawyers continues today to the glee of insurance companies, insurance defense attorneys, ad agencies, newspapers, magazines, billboard companies, etc. The cost of running the legal system to protect the public’s “right to know,” as originally allowed in 1977, has become a yearly billion dollar industry.
In the coming months, I will address many of the aspects of the legal advertising market and tactics used by some of the law firms spending extravagant sums of money, for a practice which I believe doesn’t contribute to the image of trial lawyers or inure to the benefit of the injured and deceased to get the best possible resolution of their cases by trial or settlement.
In my opinion the rights of citizens to get full justice for a legal wrong under the “Open Courts Clause” in the Tennessee Constitution and the “Due Process Clause” of the United State Constitution have been diminished under social media lawyer advertising.
Medical malpractice and worker’s compensation restrictions and caps on damages are just a few of the subjects reduced by the Tennessee General Assembly and courts that have involved the diminishing of our citizens’ rights to obtain justice. The enactment of much of that repressive legislation can be directly linked to negative campaigns by our opponents to attack “the greedy trial lawyers.”
I do not expect to influence the minority few who engage in the high dollar legal advertising game of roulette but intend to remind the public that there are 1,200-1,500 qualified attorneys in the southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia areas that are equally, or more qualified to handle cases in the areas of personal injury, bankruptcy, social security, divorce, and criminal law.
Hopefully this blog will assist the public to make an informed decision as to their choice of a law firm to represent them in any legal matter rather than glitzy ads and jingles claiming “expertise” in a particular area of the law.
The social media advertisers are the “Best” at promoting themselves. They may not be the “Best” to represent you in court against tough defense lawyers and insurance companies.
This does not mean that all attorneys who advertise engage in the deceptive or exaggerated touting of their talents but the blog hopefully will serve as a reminder for the potential clients to talk to more than one or two law firms before making the important decision as to who will represent you.
I expect that I will be attacked for creating this blog. Charges of jealousy, senility, hypocrisy, and efforts to get more business will be thrown at me by either the lawyers who want to take me on publicly or by straw persons acting on their behalf.
I am 76 years old and have been through many battles before. I am both loved and hated by the citizens of this area and have been fortunate to have a few friends and supporters who may (or may not) agree with me on this issue.
Let the discussions begin!
My Professional Mission as a Lawyer
For a long time, our law firm motto and my professional mission is “The practice of law is still a profession and not a business.” I’m mindful of the professional journey that I’ve been on and I’m grateful to the profession that has provided for me during my adult life. I love practicing law, but I’m troubled by what I’ve seen over the past decade.
Increasingly, the highest marketing budget is the sole determinate of where a client chooses. Lawyers have become glorified carnival barkers with a J.D., complete with colorful outfits and catchphrases to match. Firms have grown in size and failed to match with client service. Aiming for a quick about settlement has become the modus operandi above working for the client’s best interest, even if it takes more work.
I’m not happy with the way that a sizable portion of my industry has chosen to represent themselves and our work. The truth is that the legal capability and ethics of many of the 1,200 lawyers in the Chattanooga area are fully capable of trying certain cases for clients, not solely the handful that are spending tens of thousands of dollars on slick advertising. Our community witnessed this shameful behavior in the wake of the Woodmore Elementary bus tragedy when some law firms immediately saw an opportunity for financial gain and swooped in on grieving families.
This independent website is aimed at highlighting many of the practices that I believe have sullied the law profession in recent decades. This blog isn’t meant to say that my firm is necessarily a better fit for your case than another firm. It doesn’t necessarily mean you should hire me. Rather, we suggest you talk to more than one law firm in addition to the glitzy lawyers that gloss billboards, daytime television, and many social media websites.