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Last week, at the request of a father and grandfather, I was searching for information about a recent accident that took the life of a mother of two small children.
The accident had received some press coverage and so I hit Google to see if I could obtain more information. There were several reports of the accident on various news sites, but there was a curious entry that popped up. A younger lawyer in Kansas City “reported” the accident about 11 days after it occurred. He professed to be familiar with the area where the accident occurred and offered two or three “suggestions” for interested parties to explore as to why this accident happened.
This particular lawyer claimed to have knowledge in this particular kind of accident and while not directly soliciting the case was clearly offering up his expertise and familiarity with the area to the family if they happened to find his website.
I continued to scroll down through the Google entries and discovered another law firm had done something similar. I was flabbergasted. Ambulance chasing is now taking place in cyberspace. Hungry lawyers (I am being kind and I am not sure why) are now using the Internet to hustle cases. For years, some law firms have been obtaining police reports from local police departments following accidents, and they actually write letters to the injured parties, but the Internet lawyers have taken ambulance chasing to a new level.
I am not sure what happened to the tradition of a lawyer relying on his reputation and experience to attract new clients, but there is a new breed of lawyers on the scene who are trying to take the shortcuts through aggressive marketing and solicitation.
Then, last Wednesday I opened my email box and I discovered yet another technique to attract new clients. The subject line of the email message was “new client pipeline.” The introductory statement was: “WE DELIVER CLIENTS TO YOUR LAW FIRM AT THE EXACT TIME THEY NEED YOUR SERVICE ON AN EXCLUSIVE BASIS!!!!”
This company is selling banner ads on a funeral home website on the Internet so people who have lost family members and are searching for a funeral home will see a lawyer’s advertisement in the event that the family also needs a lawyer.
This technique is a refinement of the technique used by Paul Newman in one of the best legal movies of all time, “The Verdict.” If you recall the movie, Paul Newman finds out that some young woman has died as the result a doctor’s negligence and he goes directly to the funeral home during visitation to visit the family, even though he knows no one in the family. The family’s reaction to his attempt to solicit their case is filled with anger, yet they end up hiring Newman’s character to represent them. The family’s lawyer is ill-equipped to handle the case, but an 11th hour witness who was a nurse in the hospital where the woman dies, comes forward with the truth which saves the case for the family. Yet, the case begins with shameful solicitation by the lawyer.
Last week, at the request of a father and grandfather, I was searching for information about a recent accident that took the life of a mother of two small children.
The accident had received some press coverage and so I hit Google to see if I could obtain more information. There were several reports of the accident on various news sites, but there was a curious entry that popped up. A younger lawyer in Kansas City “reported” the accident about 11 days after it occurred. He professed to be familiar with the area where the accident occurred and offered two or three “suggestions” for interested parties to explore as to why this accident happened.
This particular lawyer claimed to have knowledge in this particular kind of accident and while not directly soliciting the case was clearly offering up his expertise and familiarity with the area to the family if they happened to find his website.
I continued to scroll down through the Google entries and discovered another law firm had done something similar. I was flabbergasted. Ambulance chasing is now taking place in cyberspace. Hungry lawyers (I am being kind and I am not sure why) are now using the Internet to hustle cases. For years, some law firms have been obtaining police reports from local police departments following accidents, and they actually write letters to the injured parties, but the Internet lawyers have taken ambulance chasing to a new level.
I am not sure what happened to the tradition of a lawyer relying on his reputation and experience to attract new clients, but there is a new breed of lawyers on the scene who are trying to take the shortcuts through aggressive marketing and solicitation.
Then, last Wednesday I opened my email box and I discovered yet another technique to attract new clients. The subject line of the email message was “new client pipeline.” The introductory statement was: “WE DELIVER CLIENTS TO YOUR LAW FIRM AT THE EXACT TIME THEY NEED YOUR SERVICE ON AN EXCLUSIVE BASIS!!!!”
This company is selling banner ads on a funeral home website on the Internet so people who have lost family members and are searching for a funeral home will see a lawyer’s advertisement in the event that the family also needs a lawyer.
This technique is a refinement of the technique used by Paul Newman in one of the best legal movies of all time, “The Verdict.” If you recall the movie, Paul Newman finds out that some young woman has died as the result a doctor’s negligence and he goes directly to the funeral home during visitation to visit the family, even though he knows no one in the family. The family’s reaction to his attempt to solicit their case is filled with anger, yet they end up hiring Newman’s character to represent them. The family’s lawyer is ill-equipped to handle the case, but an 11th hour witness who was a nurse in the hospital where the woman dies, comes forward with the truth which saves the case for the family. Yet, the case begins with shameful solicitation by the lawyer.
Coincidentally, I am reading John Grisham’s newest novel, “The Litigators” and the fictional firm profiled in the novel, Finley & Figg, has taken ambulance chasing to new levels. Actually, I have just finished the part in which one of the partners is traveling around to area funeral homes searching for clients to sue a drug manufacturer. I have had my fill of ambulance chasing this week, having experienced a trifecta.
It is sad that many lawyers now have turned into carnival hucksters trying to take advantage of some person’s tragedy. I am aware of several instances of lawyers doing similar things to what the character did in “The Verdict.” It is sickening.
We are inundated with lawyer advertisements on television, on the front and back pages of our phone books, on billboards, and now on the Internet. Two of the more prominent advertisers lately are located in St. Louis. Why would you hire a St. Louis law firm when there are many capable lawyers in our area to handle any case? I suppose if you don’t know a lawyer you just pick the one that appears on your television or on your phone book. There are better ways to find a good lawyer.
Much has changed in the practice of law in the past 31 years of my career. Many of the changes have been good, but this shameful solicitation of clients is disgusting and does great damage to our profession. Fortunately, there are many of us who still follow the traditional method of building a good reputation and relying on referrals from existing or previous clients, friends and other lawyers.
Then there are those who use shortcuts through shameful solicitation who don’t care about their reputation or the image of their profession. They must not have any mirrors in their homes or offices.
