Florida Supreme Court rejects Bar rule prohibiting lawyers from belonging to private services which refer to both lawyers and doctors

Hello everyone and welcome to this Ethics Alert which will discuss the recent Florida Supreme Court Opinion which rejected any Bar rule prohibiting lawyers from belonging to private services which refer to lawyers and doctors. The case is In Re: Amendments to Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-7.22, Case No SC18-881. The April 15, 2019 Read More

South Carolina ethics advisory opinion states that matching legal services such as those offered by Avvo are prohibited

Hello everyone and welcome to this Ethics Alert which will discuss the recent South Carolina ethics advisory opinion which states that marketing fees to non-lawyer companies collected as part of legal fees are prohibited. The advisory opinion is here: https://www.scbar.org/Bar-Members/Ethics-Advisory-Opinions/Opinion-View/ArticleId/2455/Ethics-Advisory-Opinion-16-06 The July 14, 2016 ethics advisory opinion discusses a marketing program and fee arrangement similar to Read More

Florida Bar’s Board of Governors will vote on substantial revisions to Bar rules related to lawyer referral services

Hello everyone and welcome to this Ethics Alert blog which will discuss the proposed revisions to the lawyer referral Bar rules which would change the names to “matching services” and “qualifying providers” and substantially revise the existing referral rules. The proposed rule revisions are here: https://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBResources.nsf/Attachments/D8FFF4171E28E5C085257FA300648D6B/$FILE/4-7.22%20et%20al%20legislative.pdf?OpenElement The proposed rules address for-profit companies that link lawyers Read More

Lawyer directory website Avvo is offering fixed fee legal services on a limited basis and plans to expand the services

By Admin | Published January 25, 2016 | Posted in Avvo legal services, joe corsmeier, Joseph Corsmeier, lawyer fee splitting, Lawyer Referral Services | Tagged Tags: Attorney advertising rules, Attorney Ethics, Bar ethics rules, joseph corsmeier, lawyer advertising, Lawyer advertising rules | 2 Comments

Hello and welcome to this Ethics Alert blog which will discuss the recent decision by the lawyer directory website Avvo to offer legal services to individuals through selected lawyers for a fixed fee and charge the lawyers a marketing fee to participate. An ABA article dated January 12, 2015 discussing Avvo’s plans is here: Read More

Florida Supreme Court issues opinion stating that lawyers should be prohibited from accepting referrals from non-lawyer owned referral services

By Admin | Published September 25, 2015 | Posted in Florida Lawyer Ethics and Professionalism, Florida Lawyer Referral Services, joe corsmeier, Joseph Corsmeier, Lawyer ethics, Lawyer Ethics and Professionalism, Lawyer Referral Services | Tagged Tags: Attorney Ethics, Bar ethics rules, corsmeier, Florida Bar, joseph corsmeier | Leave a comment

Revised with corrected link to Supreme Court opinion only. I apologize for any inconvenience. Hello and welcome to this Ethics Alert which will discuss the recent opinion of the Supreme Court of Florida which rejected The Florida Bar’s proposed lawyer referral rules and stated that lawyers should be prohibited from accepting referrals from non-lawyer owned Read More

Florida Bar’s Special Committee on Lawyer Referral Services issues final report recommending enhanced regulation of lawyers who receive referrals from for-profit referral services

Hello and welcome to this Ethics Alert blog which will discuss the recent recommendation of the Florida Bar’s Special Committee on Lawyer Referral Services. The Special Committee’s report is available on the Florida Bar’s website: www.floridabar.org. The final report was released on July 26, 2012 and will be presented to The Florida Bar Board of Read More

The Florida Bar’s lawyer referral committee votes to recommend that lawyers be banned from participating in combined lawyer and medical (non-lawyer) referral services

Hello and welcome to this JACPA Ethics Alert which will discuss the May 4, 2012 meeting of the Special Committee on Lawyer Referral Services wherein the committee voted, inter alia, to recommend that the Bar rules be revised to prohibit lawyers from participating in combined lawyer/medical (or other non-legal) referral services. As reported in the Read More