New York CNN —
Drive down any highway in America or turn on the TV for 10 minutes and you’ll probably see an advertisement for a personal injury lawyer.
“Hurt in car crash? Injured on the job? Slipped in the store? Call this lawyer to get compensated now,” a typical ad for a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney goes. A lawyer is often in the ad behind a desk or in a courtroom and a phone number spelling a word or phrase for the viewer to call flashes across the screen.
There’s a stigma around attorney advertising and it was restricted for most of the 20th century until the Supreme Court in 1977 ruled that it violated First Amendment protections. The court said the restriction had disadvantaged legal service access “particularly for the not-quite-poor and the unknowledgeable.”
The decision opened the floodgates for attorney advertising. Tort claims spiked in the 1980s, driven in part by damages filed by workers exposed to asbestos.
Spending on legal service ads on television hit $1.2 billion through November, according to data from Kantar.
Many personal injury lawyers advertise aggressively because of competition and the unusual business model many practices have adopted. Advertisements also help reach clients who don’t know any personal injury attorneys, are unable to rely on referrals, or are unaware of their legal rights.
“I advertise to show my business and hopefully attract business,” said John Morgan, the founder of Morgan & Morgan, the largest injury law firm in...
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