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by Greg Beck

Under a settlement agreement filed yesterday, Florida lawyers are now free to use sites like Avvo and LinkedIn without fear of professional discipline. The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by Public Citizen earlier this year on behalf of Florida attorney Joel Rothman, who the Florida Bar prohibited from using Avvo on the ground that reviews by former clients posted on the site would violate state ethics rules. 

The settlement provides that the Bar will treat lawyer profiles in online directories as information that the client has requested, thus exempting the profiles from stringent rules against client testimonials and past results. The Bar will also review its lawyer advertising rules regarding Web sites maintained by lawyers and recommend changes to the Florida Supreme Court.

Online lawyer directories have the potential to provide consumers valuable and badly needed assistance in selecting a lawyer. In Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, the Supreme Court observed that the days had long passed when consumers could find lawyers based only on their reputation in the community. After Bates extended First Amendment protection to lawyer advertising, competition gradually emerged in the form of television, radio, and newspaper ads. But these forms of media, by their nature, allow for only limited amounts of information. On the other hand, websites are easily accessible and can provide details about a lawyer's practice, including disciplinary history, past cases, and reviews of former clients.

It is therefore strange when states decide to crack down on this kind of advertising. Lawyer advertising rules are supposed to protect the public from false and misleading ads, not from accurate and useful information.

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