120 N.J.L.J. 1112
December 10, 1987
OPINION 3
Billboard Advertising
The Committee has received an inquiry from a law firm that
would like to advertise on a billboard. The billboard would
contain the firm's name, address, and telephone number. It would
also contain a short phrase designed to attract public attention
and indicating that the firm handles personal injury cases. A
statement that an initial consultation is free might be included as
well. The inquirer asks whether the message and, more importantly,
the medium are permissible under the Rules of Professional Conduct.
The propriety of billboard advertising draws sharply into
focus the significant change resulting from In the Matter of the
Petition of Felmeister and Issacs, 104 N.J. 515 (1986). That case
involved a challenge to the then existing RPC 7.2(a), which
required, inter alia, that all advertisements be presented in a
dignified manner without the use of drawings, animations,
dramatizations, music, or lyrics. After carefully reviewing this
standard, the Court concluded that "the total prohibition against
'drawings...' etc., is unwise; furthermore, at least as applied to
print advertising, it is unconstitutional." Id. at 517.
The Court did not, however, eliminate all restrictions on
advertisements. Rather, it balanced the significant societal
benefits that advertising promotes against the perceived harms
resulting from unrestricted advertising. The Court primarily
feared that consumers would select counsel based on the manner of
presentation rather than the competency of the lawyer or the
quality of the legal services provided. Id. at 525-28.
In order to control non-rational appeals to consumers, the
Court amended RPC 7.2(a) to require that all advertisements now be
predominantly informational. In Felmeister, the Court explained
this new standard as requiring "that in both quantity and quality,
the communication of factual information rationally related to the
need for and selection of an attorney predominates." Id. at 528.
This explanation has also been embodied in RPC 7.2(a):
No advertisement shall rely in any way on
techniques to obtain attention that depend upon
absurdity and that demonstrate a clear and
intentional lack of relevance to the selection of
counsel; included in this category are all
advertisements that contain any extreme portrayal
of counsel exhibiting characteristics clearly
unrelated to legal competence.
The proposed billboard advertisement does not contain any
information that would be violative of the above rule. Indeed, the
information being presented is precisely that which the Court
recognized as traditionally disseminated through print advertising.
Id. at 104 N.J. at 528-29.
The proposed medium of advertising--a billboard--merits
particular scrutiny. However, the Committee can discern no reason
why a billboard cannot serve as a predominantly informational
source of advertising about the availability of legal services.
The principles and constraints that govern other forms of print
advertisements are equally applicable, as are enforcement
mechanisms for false, misleading, or non-rational advertisements.
In reaching this result, the Committee must emphasize that it
is only considering printed billboard advertising. Electronic
billboards, and particularly those on which action advertisements
can be displayed, may present special problems similar to those
involved with advertisements on television. Felmeister, 104 N.J.
at 529; RPC 7,2(a). Such electronic advertisements are not at
issue in this inquiry.