Syracuse, New York is at the center of a debate that recently challenged the limits placed on advertising for peronal injury attorneys.  Alexander & Catalano called itself “heavy hitters” in ads and had run TV commercials depicting its lawyers as giants towering over skyscrapers, counseling space aliens about an insurance dispute and speeding to reach a client.  Although some of the images were referred to in the case as “silly stuff” Gregory A. Beck, who argued the case, said that “attention-getting is what advertisements do.”

The case did a couple of things.  First of all the decision said that statewide rule changes that took effect on Feb 1 violated the free speech of lawyers.  It cleared the way for lawyers in New York to use pop-up ads on the Internet, but did not answer the bigger but more subtle issue of whether firms must label newlsetters and e-mail messages to clients as advertising.

According to the New York Times, “the new rules defined advertising as any public or private communication made on behalf of a lawyer or law firm about that law firm’s services, the primary purpose of which is for the retention of the lawer and the law firm.”  So does that mean that e-mail messages must have a note in the subject line stating that it is “attorney advertising” a designation that could trap the messages in spam filters?  A companion issue is the discussion as to whether or not it is necessary to include the disclaimer “attorney advertising” at the bottom of a firm’s web site and on any proposals seeking business.

All of this is rather unclear and will tend to vary from state to state.  If any of our readers have insight into these issues, please share it with us in the comments section of this post.