Ethics & Malpractice Issues

In response to posts criticizing the Nevada Bar’s heavy handed approach to an attorney who advertises himself as “The Heavy Hitter,” (see here, here and here), Jon Stein of The Practice blog endorses increased regulation.  Jon, who is a personal injury attorney himself believes that undignified advertising gives the professsion a black eye and hurts…

A Nevada attorney, Glen Lerner, is challenging an ethics decision that prohibits him from calling himself “The Heavy Hitter,” according to this article, Lawyer to Sue Over Heavy Hitter Name. What’s even sillier than the title “Heavy Hitter” is the bar’s reason for banning it:  the bar believes that Lerner’s use of the term is…

Jon Stein posts a link to an article concerning the ethics of trolling for clients in online chat rooms under California law.  As you might expect, there are no clear cut answers; basically, you ability to ethically solicit clients in a chatroom depends upon the type of chatroom involved and whether participants have an expectation…

This article, Did Barnes Firm Lawyer Tell the Whole Truth?, Michael Beebe, 1/22/06 reports on somewhat deceptive advertising by Thomas Goldstein, a lawyer with Cellino and Barnes, who advertised that he was uniquely qualified to handle Vioxx cases in light of his status as a former physician.  Trouble was, the ads didn’t explain why Goldstein…

This article from AP,  Lawyers Can Be Sued for False Advertising (1/11/06) reports on a recent ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, holding that the state’s consumer protection act applies to lawyers.  Thus, plaintiffs can bring civil actions against attorneys for false or deceptive advertising. Frankly, I don’t have a problem with this ruling.  In…

The Greatest American Lawyer has been on the greatest of blog-posting frenzies this past week, with a number of must-read posts.  But the one I’ve selected to focus on is this, which asks Have you ever considered waiving fees even when you did nothing wrong? There, GAL describes his decision to forego several thousand dollars…

Over at The Practice, Jonathan Stein ponders whether clients should be billed for smaller incidental costs like photocopying or faxing.  Jon falls on the side of rolling these incidentals into overhead rather than reflecting them on a client bill. I agree with Jon.  But for me, the much trickier question when it comes to billing…

David Giacalone of f/k/ahas this post about the recent Florida Supreme Court decision in the 1-800 PIT BULL case (we noted the matter earlier here). The court ruled that a Florida law firm’s use of the phone number 1-800-PIT-BULL and a logo depicting a pit bull in a spiked collar violates Florida ethics rules –…