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: Legal Blog Watch

Lawyer's Ad Tacky, Perhaps, but Unethical?

By Robert J. Ambrogi

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Is it ethical for a lawyer to solicit a rape victim by leaving a leaflet on her windshield? That is the question to be decided by New Jersey's Committee on Attorney Advertising, according to the New Jersey Law Journal. It seems beyond debate that such a solicitation would be in bad taste, but distasteful is not necessarily synonymous with unethical. In a nutshell, here is what is alleged, according to the NJLJ report: The victim, known in court papers as K.D., claims an orange flyer from Fred Zemel's Newark firm appeared on her car on or about Feb. 19, 2007 -- two months after the sexual assault occurred. It touted the firm's services to anyone who had been the victim of "rape and assault in your building or apartment." No other car parked nearby had such a flyer on it, leading K.D. to assume the flyer was directed at her, she says. Based on that allegation, the Committee on Attorney Advertising filed a formal complaint against Zemel, charging him with violating the ethical prohibitions against direct client solicitation and against communicating with someone whose physical, emotional or mental state might impair the decision to hire a lawyer. Of course, there...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on July 29, 2009 (boomark / email).