ETHICS OPINION 649-1975 ADVERTISING IN DAILY LEGAL JOURNAL; ASSERTION OF SPECIAL COMPETENCE IN NEGLIGENCE CASES

NUMBER 649

QUESTION.

 

May a lawyer properly cause the following advertisement, or one with similar content, to be published in a classified section of a daily Law Journal:

“Don’t settle for $10,000,00 in heavy negligence eases against taxi companies. We most likely can obtain much more.

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Box No.”

 

ANSWER.

 

DR 2-105(A)(3) sets forth the limits of permissible advertising in a law journal as follows:

 

“A lawyer available to act as a consultant to or as an associate of other lawyers in a particular branch of law or legal service may distribute to other lawyers and publish in legal journals a dignified announcement of such availability, but the announcement shall not contain a representation of special competence or experience. The announcement shall not be distributed to lawyers more frequently than once in a calendar year, but it may be published periodically in legal journals.”

 

The proposed advertisement is plainly a self-laudatory and flashy type of competitive commercial advertising rather than a simple “dignified announcement” of availability to act as a consultant to or as an associate of other lawyers in a particular area of legal practice. The proposed advertisement, or any advertisement of similar content, would offend DR 2-105(A)(3) both because of its lack of dignity as a professional announcement and because it contains a representation of special competence or experience. See N.Y. County 619 (1974).

 

June 20, 1975