Should third-party lead generation services for lawyers be illegal?
Colorado recently enacted a law restricting third-party legal lead generation.
Should other states follow?
The biggest problem with these services is that consumers often have no idea who they're actually dealing with when they submit their information. They think they're contacting a law firm, when in reality they're giving their personal information to a marketing company that sells their case to whichever lawyer pays for the lead.
But an even bigger concern is the misleading nature of many of these advertisements.
The common response is, "Lawyers run misleading ads too."
Sometimes they do. But there's a critical difference.
State Bars have jurisdiction over lawyers. They can investigate them, discipline them, and, if necessary, suspend or revoke their licenses. And the prospect of that discipline often keeps outrageous claims in check (for example, you'll never see a lawyer directly promising some new, secret legislation allows clients to get more money).
State Bars don't have the same authority over non-lawyer lead generation companies.
Yes, a Bar can discipline a lawyer for using a misleading lead generator. But that requires tracing the advertisement back to the lawyer, proving the relationship, proving the lawyer had some knowledge of the misleading ads, and pursuing the attorney after the fact. It's an indirect, cumbersome enforcement mechanism.
There are two better approaches.
The first is to prohibit third-party legal lead generation altogether, as Colorado has chosen to do.
The second is to require that lawyers only purchase leads from Bar-certified providers. Those providers would be subject to regular audits and advertising standards. If a provider engaged in misleading advertising, it would simply lose its certification, and lawyers who continued using it could face discipline.
Either approach would be far more effective than the current system.
At the end of the day, this isn't about protecting lawyers. It's about protecting consumers. People looking for legal help deserve to know who they're contacting, who is collecting their personal information, and whether the advertising that led them there is truthful.
What do you think? Join the conversation with me on LinkedIn.
