Would you shop for a lawyer on Facebook?

I don’t do FB so I can’t tell whether this is the entire page but OK rules on atty advertising are quite plain. Any ad–and this is an ad–must declare that “This is an advertisement.” Also, the ad cannot create any unreasonable expectation. Can someone tell me what a “straight bankruptcy” is? My expectation is that if I use this guy for a bankruptcy, that I will be entitled to $50 off and that must mean he is less costly than all other attorneys who handle bankruptcies. Also, I assume that since he is advertsing only for bankruptcies that he is an expert or specialist in bankruptcy law. That, as a consumer and potential client, is what I glean from the ad.

To put it another way, I’d say there were some serious ethics rules issues prompted by this ad.

In most states this would be an ethical ad, unlike when I started practice where almost no advertizing was permitted. The nature of the ad is obvious so the failure to declare it as such would be a technical violation only. I doubt the discipline authorities would do much. A straight bankruptcy is a Chapter 7 or 13 petition without motions, objections to discharge or adversarial proceedings which take a lot of extra time and a fee adjustment based on the time spent is justified. Look! This guy is an asshole, but this ad is not an example of it. In reality, it seems that this guy is hurting for business. Most of us do not spend much on advertizing. I spent a couple of hundred bucks over 30 years, mostly on business cards, too many of which have been used by my clients to cut lines of coke. I get business in two ways. Through membership in a large motorcycle club, although some of them want more free shit than the OWS hippies. The main way is through results and a reasonable fee. There’s nothing like winning a couple of death penalty cases to make the door bell ring. For my luxurious lifestyle I depend on my 1% wife, the law school valedictorian corporate banking attorney. It’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich girl as a poor one. The prior wife drove a semi truck.

@3. The state at issue is not most states but Oklahoma and, according to their rules, which I briefly visited this morning, this ad is not okay on its face. Beyond that, there is a reasonable question as to whether this guy is offering cut-rate leagal services and whether he is creating the inference that he is an expert in bankruptcy, a no-no as you are doubtless aware. But the matter isn’t academic. Oklahoma has an attorney grievance commission by that or another name and I have every confidence that they will soon be aware of the FB ad.