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Public Hearing
Scheduled on Attorney Advertising Report
A public hearing on the report
issued by the Committee on Attorney Advertising is scheduled for
Thursday, Jan. 19, 2006, at the
Appellate Court, located at 75
Elm St. in Hartford.
The public hearing will start at
4 p.m.
View a copy of the
Report of
the Committee on Lawyer Advertising
- (PDF).
Appellate Court
Judge C. Ian McLachlan chairs the committee, which
Chief Justice William J.
Sullivan established in 2004 to address the issue of attorney
advertising. The purpose of the public hearing is to receive
comments concerning the committee’s proposed revisions to the
Connecticut Practice Book and to the Rules of Professional
Conduct relating to attorney advertising.
Following is a verbatim outline
that was published in the Connecticut Law Journal regarding the
major changes that the committee has proposed. The first seven
bullets involve revisions to the Code of Professional Conduct.
The last two bullets summarize two new proposed Practice Book
sections that the committee is recommending.
- In Rule 7.1 current
subsections (2) and (3), which prohibit communications likely
to create an unjustified expectation about results the lawyer
can achieve and unsubstantiated comparisons of the lawyer’s
services with other lawyers’ services, have been moved from
the text to the Commentary, where they are discussed as
examples of communications that are prohibited because they
are false or misleading.
- Lawyers may use new electronic
technology, including the Internet, to advertise their
services and such advertising is subject to the Rules of
Professional Conduct (Rule 7.2).
- An electronic advertisement or
communication must be copied once every three months and
retained for three years after its last dissemination (Rule
7.2).
- A lawyer is only permitted to
pay the usual charges of a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer
referral service as defined in subsection (c) (2) of Rule 7.2.
- An advertisement or
communication made pursuant to Rule 7.2 must include the name
of at least one lawyer admitted in Connecticut responsible for
its content.
- A lawyer who is not admitted
to practice in Connecticut is subject to the disciplinary
authority of this state if the lawyer provides or offers to
provide any legal services in this state (Rule 8.5).
- If a lawyer is subject to the
disciplinary authority of both this jurisdiction and another
jurisdiction for the same conduct, and the conduct takes place
in connection with a matter before a tribunal, the
disciplinary rules for the jurisdiction in which the tribunal
sits shall be applied. For any other conduct, the lawyer is
subject to the rules of the jurisdiction in which the lawyer’s
conduct occurred or if the predominant effect of the conduct
is in a different jurisdiction, the rules of that jurisdiction
shall be applied (Rule 8.5).
- Lawyers who advertise must
file a copy of their advertisement with the Statewide
Grievance Committee either prior to or concurrently with the
first dissemination of the advertisement. The filing must be
in the same form or forms in which the advertisement is to be
disseminated. Several types of communication are exempted from
this filing requirement. The statewide bar counsel shall
review the material filed on a random basis and if he or she
finds that the material violates the rules, shall attempt to
resolve the matter with the lawyer. If the matter cannot be
resolved, the statewide bar counsel shall forward the matter
to the Statewide Grievance Committee. If the Statewide
Grievance Committee determines that the material does not
comply with the rules, it shall forward the matter to the
disciplinary counsel with a direction to file a presentment
against the lawyer in Superior Court.
- A lawyer may request an
advance advisory opinion concerning a contemplated
advertisement’s compliance with the rules from the Statewide
Grievance Committee. A fee for the advisory opinion is to be
established by the chief court administrator. An advisory
opinion finding noncompliance with the rules is not binding in
a disciplinary proceeding, but a finding of compliance with
the rules is binding in a subsequent disciplinary proceeding.
If a lawyer disseminates an advertisement after receiving an
advisory opinion finding that such advertisement violates the
Rules of Professional Conduct, the Statewide Grievance
Committee, upon receiving notice of the dissemination, shall
forward the matter to the disciplinary counsel with a
direction to file a presentment against the lawyer in Superior
Court.
For further information, please
contact Rhonda Stearley-Hebert, External Affairs Division, at
860-757-2270.
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