The Florida Bar Committee on Advertising voted 6-1 to answer the texting question by defining a law firm’s proposed texting campaign as impermissible solicitation analogous to inappropriate phone calling or telemarketing to attract clients.
The law firm’s position is that texting is similar to direct mail or email advertising, which is permissible if done in accordance with the Florida Bar’s rule on direct mail advertising. The firm plans to appeal the Committee’s decision to the Florida Bar Board of Governors. Stay tuned as technology strikes the advertising rules again! Read more here.
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Oh my, what about emails to accounts that are set up so that the emails are delivered to a person’s cell phone as a text message. Under this decision, a lawyer is seemingly obligated to find out how a recipient is going to read an advertising email before sending it.
It’s too bad that neither the lawyers involved in this case nor the FL Bar Committee know what they needed to know to address this important issue.