• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 6, 2009

Consumer rights group Public Citizen is challenging Florida advertising rules that restrict lawyers' ability to market themselves online.

In that state, an attorney ethics rule bans lawyers from asking former clients to write testimonials when they will appear on sites the lawyers don't themselves control, such as review sites. Boca Raton attorney Joel Rothman, who has a profile on review site Avvo, was told he had violated this rule by using an automated request form to ask several ex-clients to rate him.

Public Citizen argues that the ban on online reviews violates Rothman's First Amendment right to free speech, and also consumers' rights to receive information. "The rules deny these consumers information that is not only completely accurate and non-misleading, but critically important to their choice of a lawyer," the group argues in its complaint, filed last week in the federal district court in the southern district of Florida.

Rothman's lawyer, Greg Beck, adds: "There's value in consumers being able to give their opinions. Some of the reviews will be good, but some of the reviews will surely be bad -- and negative reviews are a warning."

Rothman's lawsuit deals specifically with laws regarding attorney advertising, but other decisions about attorney ads have resulted in new standards for laws regarding all forms of advertising.

In Rothman's case, after he learned of the ethics rule, he asked the authorities to decide whether his reviews on Avvo were permissible. The Florida Bar ethics authorities told Rothman that the Avvo reviews broke the ad rules. Rothman alleged in his lawsuit that he asked Avvo to remove the reviews from his profile, but Avvo refused.

In his lawsuit, he asks for an injunction to prevent the State Bar authorities from taking any action against him.

Public Citizen has also challenged ads about attorney rules in two other states -- Louisiana and New York. The Louisiana case is currently pending in district court. In New York, a district court judge declared the ad rules unconstitutional; the Second Circuit is currently considering an appeal.