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sunEthics |
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Florida Supreme Court amends rules regarding lawyer-to-lawyer and lawyer-to-client communications. [Added 7/9/10] Ruling on a request from the Florida Bar, the Florida Supreme Court adopted rules that expressly exempt lawyer-to-lawyer and lawyer-to-client communications from the Bar's advertising rules. These communications remain subject to other Rules of Professional Conduct, including the conflict rules and the rule against conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation. New Rule 4-7.1(e) will provide: "Subchapter 4-7 shall not apply to communications between lawyers." This was the text as proposed by the Bar. In adopting the rule regarding communications with current or former clients, the Court added language on its own motion to emphasize that this rule may not be used to circumvent other advertising rules that should apply. The Court's language also specifies that, for purposes of this rule, "former clients" of a lawyer do not include a public entity's clients or former clients. New Rule 4-7.1(g) provides: "Subchapter 4-7 shall not apply to communications between a lawyer and that lawyer’s own current and former clients. However, a lawyer shall not provide advertising materials to the lawyer’s own current or former clients that the lawyer received from other attorneys – a lawyer shall not serve as a conduit for other attorneys’ advertising. Further, as used in this rule, the term 'former clients' does not include the clients or former clients of a public entity." The Court cautioned: "One of the purposes of the advertising rules is to protect members of the public from false or misleading advertisements. With this purpose in mind, we state that lawyers are prohibited from using these two exceptions to evade the requirements of the advertising rules. A lawyer shall not provide advertising materials to the lawyer’s own current or former clients that the lawyer received from other attorneys. This shall include lawyer-to-lawyer newsletters and brochures, if the attorney who supplied those materials is prohibited from directly distributing them to the general public." The Court also ordered the Florida Bar to "undertake a comprehensive and contemporary study of marketing," noting that "it has become apparent that there are differences between advertising and marketing." The new rules and revised Comment to Rule 4-7.1 become effective on October 1, 2010. In re: Amendments to Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-7.1 – Lawyer-to-Lawyer and Lawyer-to-Client Communications, __ So.3d ___, 35 Fla.L.Weekly S435 (Fla., No. SC09-394, 7/8/2010), 2010 WL 2680264. |
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