N.C. State Bar drops plan to limit attorney ads

The Associated Press

11.02.98

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CHARLOTTE — The North Carolina State Bar is backing down from a proposal that would have prohibited a lawyer from mailing advertisements to a potential client within 30 days of an accident, injury, traffic citation or arrest.

Bar officials voted last month to withdraw the rule from consideration by the North Carolina Supreme Court, which must give approval before such lawyer conduct codes become binding.

The move came after a federal appeals court ruled last year that a similar ban in Maryland robbed letter-writing lawyers of their right to free speech and interfered with potential clients' right to counsel.

"We're just glad the bar came to its senses," said Seth Cohen, a Greensboro attorney who represents a group of lawyers who use targeted mailings in criminal and traffic cases.

Robert Sink, a Charlotte lawyer who recently was elected president of the bar, said the group has been torn between the need to respect lawyers' constitutional rights and the desire to limit the "invasive advertising" that some see as demeaning to the profession.

Bar officials said they might resurrect a less ambitious version of the ban.

In the Maryland case, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a 30-day ban on advertising in criminal and traffic cases, but it left intact similar restrictions on advertising in personal injury and wrongful-death cases.

In personal injury cases, citizens have up to three years to file lawsuits. The judges also noted that "the privacy of accident victims and wrongful-death clients deserves protection in order to provide them with a period to cope with their grief."

They added that, "while a criminal or traffic defendant may be shaken by his arrest, what he needs is representation, not time to grieve."

In criminal and traffic cases, defendants often have court appearances within 30 days. Cohen, who submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the Maryland case, said that a 30-day ban would prevent traffic and criminal lawyers from reaching potential clients in time to help prepare their cases.

"It's a First Amendment issue," Cohen said. "Attorneys have the right to communicate just like everyone else."

Cohen said he believes the North Carolina bar will now try to ban mailings only in personal injury and wrongful-death cases. Bar officials have said they might do that or might leave the issue alone while they study it further.

Sink said he sees persuasive arguments on both sides.

"That sounds like a lawyer, doesn't it?" he said, chuckling.