Legal Research

Law Blogs Creating Ethics Problem

By jlutz99

There may be as many as 2000 law blogs which discuss topics from bioethics, to legal theory, to environmental law and everything in between, but an ethical problem has arisen as to how much of the content is speech and how much is advertising.  An article in the October 6, 2006 National Law Journal Law blogs raising prickly ethical issues discusses this:

Many states are in the process of revamping their attorney ethics rules, and part of that process involves the prickly issue of whether blogs should be regulated as advertising.

On the one hand, states want to protect consumers from unscrupulous lawyer advertising presented under the guise of an online diary. On the other hand, they want to preserve the free flow of ideas-and valuable legal information presented in a public forum-that the new technology has fostered.

And thanks to Mary McCormick for another source on this, from the November 7, 2006 Chicago Tribune, Lawyers face right to blog; Kentucky

has rules that broadly define advertising to include virtually any communication to the public by a lawyer that contains any information about the lawyer or the lawyer's practice. The rules also require that ads must be submitted for commission approval, along with a $50 filing fee.

Read the whole article:
Law blogs raising prickly ethical issues
Lawyers face right to blog

Posted by Jon Lutz

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on November 08, 2006 (boomark / email).