LawMeme LawMeme Yale Law School  
LawMeme
Search LawMeme [ Advanced Search ]
 
 
 
 
Links: Lawyers Bump Into Sponsored Links
Posted by Steven Wu on Friday, July 16 @ 12:24:26 EDT Legal Technology
The ABA Journal E-Report notes that lawyers are turning up in each other's sponsored links, raising tempers everywhere: When lawyer Peter L. Ostermiller searched for his name on Google,
Ostermiller discovered that Benjamin Cowgill, a Lexington, Ky., lawyer who also handles attorney discipline matters, was listed as a "sponsored link." Google offers the service for a fee; the links are listed in the right-hand column of searches. . . .

"The fundamental standard on lawyer advertising is that lawyers shall not engage in advertisements or commercials that are false, misleading or deceptive," Cowgill adds. "There’s nothing false or deceptive about [a sponsored link]. It’s exactly what it purports to be." . . .

Most advertising rules for lawyers focus on misrepresentation and record retention, says Will Hornsby, staff counsel in the ABA’s Division for Legal Services. He mentions Rule 7.1 of the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which makes it inappropriate for an attorney to communicate a material misrepresentation in any way. . . .

"As far as I know, this has never come up in case law," says Barrett, who is based in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. "My sense is, as soon as it starts happening, you will see the bar associations get their guns out and start shooting it down."

I haven't done a search on case law yet but I know there have already been Internet rumblings about businesses stealing each other's names for sponsored links. That last paragraph is absolutely true though: No matter how big Internet businesses and users thought the issue was before, it'll really become litigated once lawyers' interests are implicated.
 
Related Links
· More about Legal Technology
· News by Steven Wu


Most read story about Legal Technology:
Abusive E-Mail Subpoenas Are Actionable Under Federal Law

Options

 Printer Friendly Page  Printer Friendly Page

 Send to a Friend  Send to a Friend

Threshold
  
The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

[No Subject] (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, August 12 @ 17:14:26 EDT
I like this!

WoList.com [www.wolist.com] - the best site's directory, powerful web search. Advertise with us!
http://www.wolist.com [www.wolist.com]


[ Reply to This ]


Leges humanae nascuntur, vivunt, moriuntur
Human laws are born, live, and die

Contributors retain copyright interests in all stories, comments and submissions.
The PHP-Nuke engine on which LawMeme runs is copyright by PHP-Nuke, and is freely available under the GNU GPL.
Everything else is copyright copyright 2002-04 by the Information Society Project.

This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions
set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later.
The latest version is currently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/.

You can syndicate our news with backend.php



Page Generation: 0.518 Seconds