Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘chasing clients’

1-800-PIT-BULL: no urban legend

At a June 30 debate on lawyers’ advertising sponsored by the Orlando Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, plaintiff’s lawyer John Morgan challenged Republican Rep. David Simmons for repeatedly referring to a law firm’s having used the phone number 1-800-PIT- BULL. “He offered to bet Simmons $1,000, with the loser contributing to the winner?s favorite charity, if Simmons could find a lawyer ad using the PIT BULL number,” according to an account in Florida Bar Online.

“Hope Morgan?s checkbook was handy,” the account continues, because, as is easily verified, 1-800-PIT-BULL is indeed the proudly advertised call line of the Fort Lauderdale law firm of Pape and Chandler, which specializes in representing injured motorcyclists. (“1-800-PITBULL is for real”, Florida Bar News Online, Aug. 1; Gary Blankenship, “Orlando Federalists debate lawyer advertising”, Florida Bar News Online, Aug. 1). The firm has been profiled in the Florida press: a 2002 account in the Miami Herald says its “pit bull” commercial, which has run during Jerry Springer’s talk show among other programs, “brings in as many as 60 phone calls a day”. (Cindy Krischer Goodman, “Pit bull ad pays off for Miami lawyers”, Sept. 16, 2002 (reg)). The Florida Bar has also sought to discipline the firm for its ads: Julie Kay, “Crackdown on Lawyer Ads”, Miami Daily Business Review, Jul. 12. See also Matthew Haggman, “Fla. Lawmakers May Vote Today to Curb Lawyer Advertising”, Miami Daily Business Review, Mar. 23. For more, see David Giacalone, May 10. (Update Sept. 19, 2004: Florida Bar disciplinary attempt ruled unconstitutional; Jan. 15, 2006: Florida Supreme Court rules against firm.)

According to Kevin O’Keefe of Real Lawyers Have Blogs (Dec. 5, 2003), “Morgan of the Orlando law firm Morgan, Colling & Gilbert (MGC), his wife and Johnnie Cochran, along with Pensacola trial lawyers J. Michael Papantonio and Fred Levin, own a consulting firm called Practice Made Perfect, which handles marketing and advertising for law firms around the country.” For yet more on Morgan, see the last sentence in our Jul. 27 entry.

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They’re using your name! Let’s get ’em!

The central character in a new Tom Hanks movie, “The Terminal”, is a hapless Eastern European tourist by the name of “Viktor Navorski,” a name recalling that of the veteran left-wing author and Nation magazine publisher Victor Navasky. “Whenever a commercial for ‘The Terminal’ appeared on television, my phone would ring and it would be another attorney assuring me that my ship had come in. Clearly I had a case for “misappropriation of my name and likeness,’ ‘expropriation of my right of publicity’ and my favorite, ‘product disparagement.'” (Victor Navasky, “You Say Navorski, He Says Navasky”, Los Angeles Times, Jul. 5).

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Texas lawyers fall victim to scam

In Texas, to name one state, it’s perfectly legal for lawyers pursuing personal injury claims to advance money to their clients to cover living expenses. (At common law, the practice was banned under the rubric of “maintenance”.) So when Kelvin Johnson came around with a story about how he and a friend had been injured on an oil rig and how the friend was lying in a coma and had been offered a hefty settlement, it seemed like pretty much a sure thing to slip him some money. Trouble is, Johnson was pulling the scam with numerous lawyers under various names. A Corpus Christi practitioner explained why he was suspicious of what seemed the “perfect case”: “I didn’t think it likely that his friend could be in a coma 10 months without some lawyer signing him up.” Johnson has been sentenced to 20 years. (Rick Casey, “Selling lawyers a lucrative tale”, Houston Chronicle, Jun. 22) (via Texas Law Blog).

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Tasteful moments in lawyer advertising

The Hartford, Ct. law firm of Haymond, Napoli & Diamond runs an ad that particularly annoys the state’s chief justice, William J. Sullivan. According to the Connecticut Law Tribune, the ad “show[s] bags of money being dropped off by an armored truck, in a presumed showing of the attorney’s courtroom prowess.” (Keith Griffin, “Conn. Justice Attacks ‘Aggressive’ Lawyer Ads”, Connecticut Law Tribune, Jun. 15). Meanwhile, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert today continues his vehement attack on those who suggest the medical liability system might be in need of some reining in, charging: “This is all about greed.” (“Malpractice Myths”, Jun. 21).

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NYC’s Wilens & Baker reprimanded

New York subway riders have long been familiar with the high-volume ad campaigns of Wilens & Baker with its hotlines 1-800-DIVORCE (on which see Dec. 18-19, 2000), 1-800-IMMIGRATION and 1-800-BANKRUPT. At the moment the firm’s big campaign is aimed at recruiting patients who have received hormone replacement therapy: if they’ve taken Premarin or Prempro and later developed breast cancer, heart problems, or many other ailments, they may be entitled to compensation, the ads say. Wilens & Baker’s website declares that the law firm has “a real understanding of the emotional hardship that accompanies extremely unfortunate circumstances”.

Hmmm. It turns out the 12-lawyer firm and its partner Lawrence M. Wilens have just been censured by the New York judiciary for “engaging in a pattern of rude, neglectful and demeaning conduct toward clients” after admitting to 19 violations of the state’s Code of Professional Responsibility, according to New York Lawyer/New York Law Journal, which has numerous colorful details (Anthony Lin, “High-Visibility NY Law Firm Censured”, May 21). Although W&B’s Prempro website declares: “You deserve a firm which specializes in personal injury and mass tort litigation”, it does not mention that 80 percent of W&B’s caseload is actually in immigration law. In the disciplinary proceedings, the firm’s employees and Mr. Wilens in particular were found to have hurled insults at various immigrant clients, including those who could not afford to pay their bills. The firm said it had changed its practices and “Mr. Wilens and other senior lawyers at the firm completed anger management classes”, but the appellate panel refused a plea to keep the reprimand secret. It was also apparently unswayed by a character reference submitted by “Richard Katcher, the chairman of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, one of the city’s top corporate law firms. Mr. Katcher told the committee he was ‘buddies’ with Mr. Wilens and that they frequently dined, socialized and vacationed together. He said he had recommended Wilens and Baker on a number of occasions and Mr. Wilens was well regarded in professional and social circles.” David Giacalone, whose invaluable website has again suspended its specifically legal commentary, covers the story (May 21, & see his comments section).

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Parked outside the emergency room…

…and in the physician-only parking area, no less, this lawyer’s van seen at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center. (Pics #1 and #2 at EMedConcepts, May 6) (via Gross Anatomy). We wonder about that hydrant in pic #1, too. More: a reader directs our attention to the website maintained by the van’s owner, the Law Office of John Dearie & Associates, which includes a page on the “mobile law office” and a reprint of a Dec. 26, 2001 New York Times article about it. Further: welcome Fark visitors (see May 20); and one observer speculates that the lawyer might have scheduled a deposition at the hospital, a theory about which we are skeptical (see Yclipse, May 18, with comment from me); see also Chris Rangel, May 19. More: Jan. 21, 2005 (TV show adapts idea), Jun. 5, 2005 (law firm’s side of story).

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Cochran’s multistate presence

Celebrity attorney Johnnie Cochran has been working hard to expand his Los Angeles-based law firm into a nationwide presence (“America’s Law Firm”, proclaims a banner on its website), and it now claims offices in ten states. Last month, amid considerable fanfare, the Cochran firm announced that it plans to merge with the Las Vegas personal injury law firm of Mainor Eglet Cottle, which we have had occasion to mention on this site in its previous incarnation as Mainor Harris (see “Crumbs from the Table”, Feb. 8-10, 2002) (Alana Roberts, “Celebrity lawyer Cochran in deal with LV law firm”, Las Vegas Sun, Mar. 2; Xazmin Garza, “Law firm set to go national”, Las Vegas Business Press, Mar. 5). It happens that the case involving Mainor Harris that we discussed two years ago, regarding charges of malfeasance in dividing a settlement on behalf of a catastrophically injured client, is still pending on appeal, and makes quite a colorful story (Ed Vogel, “Lawyer accuses two others of lying to judge”, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Feb. 10). As for the Cochran firm, its national footprint may be somewhat less impressive than you’d assume from its big Yellow Pages spreads, or at least so we gather from Evan Schaeffer’s account last month (Mar. 2) of what happened when he decided to pay an unannounced visit to the firm’s listed St. Louis offices: “The security guard had never heard of the Cochran Law Firm.”

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“Database tech helps lawyers scoop up clients”

Lawyers as paladins of privacy, cont’d: After her son was erroneously arrested, Julie Danielson checked her mail and was “shocked to see at least 12 envelopes — postmarked only hours after her son’s arrest — from defense attorneys offering their services. The lawyers had been eager recipients of a jailhouse e-mail list supplied daily by the county sheriff. … The couple was astonished that Riverside County [California] deputies failed to call them when their son was arrested — though contact and medical information was in the young man’s wallet — yet managed to inform people who wanted his business.” One envelope was emblazoned “Experts in Drug Charges”. “In New Jersey, which sends information companies who have registered with the state daily updates of who’s been arrested, a Supreme Court committee recently tightened its rules on the content of direct-mail solicitations after hearing complaints ‘in a volume too great to ignore.’ One man had received 22 letters from lawyers.” (AP/CNN, Mar. 29). More on direct-mail: Jul. 15, 1999. And: Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan explores how police accident reports serve as grist for lawyer solicitation of injury suits (“Lawyers Sow the Seeds of Lawsuits”, Apr. 5)(reg).

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“Lawyers Bid Up Value Of Web-Search Ads”

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that online legal-ad spending has risen nearly 500% in the last year, as law firms pay $50 to $70 a click to have their web sites associated with search terms like “mesothelioma” — because such cases can lead to quick settlements with asbestos-related defendants with low-risk contingent recoveries to attorneys of hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a result of other search-engine gaming efforts, “eight of the top 10 nonpaid listings in a recent Google search of ‘mesothelioma’ were for sites sponsored by law firms, pushing down nonlawyer sites such as the National Cancer Institute.” (Carl Bialik, Wall Street Journal, Apr. 8 (subscription only)). Meanwhile, far less is spent each year on mesothelioma research than on lawsuits. (Wall Street Journal, Apr. 8 (subscription only)).

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