Florida Rule 4-7.18 for Legal Practice

[jberryhill]

Florida has an interestingly detailed rule on the subject of lawyers attempting to contact prospective clients:

Rule 4-7.18, in general, addresses the subject of "Communications With Prospective Clients"

(b) Written Communication.

(1) A lawyer may not send, or knowingly permit to be sent, on the lawyer's behalf or on behalf of the lawyer's firm or partner, an associate, or any other lawyer affiliated with the lawyer or the lawyer's firm, a written communication directly or indirectly to a prospective client for the purpose of obtaining professional employment if:

(A) the written communication concerns an action for personal injury or wrongful death or otherwise relates to an accident or disaster involving the person to whom the communication is addressed or a relative of that person, unless the accident or disaster occurred more than 30 days prior to the mailing of the communication;

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What this means is that if something happens to you while you are at, say, a resort in Florida and some kind of misfortune befalls you, then the resort can, while attending to your needs as you stay at the resort and all of your communications with resort staff are recorded, have THEIR lawyers meet with you and communicate with you for a full month before any other Florida lawyer may attempt to contact you. Of course, if you are vacationing there, your odds of knowing a Florida lawyer whom you might contact, are approximately zero.

[k8conant]

1. However, you can still contact lawyers you don't know.

Also, you wouldn't have to talk to the resort's lawyers.

[jberryhill]

3. You don't have to talk to the resorts lawyers, but...

You don't have to be told just who, exactly, you are talking to either.

The resort will probably make sure you are comfortable, isolated to "protect your privacy", and provide you with a lot of very helpful staff to attend to you.

[Cassiopeia]

2. I would be skeptical of any lawyer that found me.

I generally know when I need a lawyer. If any government authority figure or any lawyer is talking to me, I probably need a lawyer of my own. If that lawyer has found me before I thought I needed a lawyer, I probably don't want that lawyer.

[jberryhill]

4. There have been some wild cases

My favorite was the lawyer who got a guy to dress up as a priest and go to the airport where family members were gathering after a crash to console them and hand out business cards.

[anigbrowl]

9. So unethical, and yet so stylish

[steve2470]

5. is this similar to the rule in your state ?

Serious question without snark, and no, I'm not asking for your state. Thanks.

[jberryhill]

6. No. Florida is kind of unusual in the specifics

Florida residents don't pay income tax. A LOT of their revenue comes from various guest and resort fees.

In my state, the corresponding rule is:

(b) A lawyer may contact, or send a written communication to, the target of the solicitation for the purpose of obtaining professional employment unless:

(1) the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that the physical, emotional or mental state of the person is such that the person could not exercise reasonable judgment in employing a lawyer;

(2) the person has made known to the lawyer a desire not to receive communications from the lawyer; or

(3) the communication involves coercion, duress, or harassment.
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Under (1), it's a judgment call, and not 30 days. And we are talking about written communications, not chasing after people.

One of the criticisms of the Florida rule is that the prospective defendant's lawyers are NOT prohibited from communicating with you at all, so they have an entire month to get the first crack at you.

"Hi, this is Jim from Guest Services. We know this is a difficult time for you and we want to help you through this in any way we can. Jim would like to go over with you exactly what happened, so that we can better understand how we can best help you at this difficult time."

[steve2470]

7. ok thanks! nt

[anigbrowl]

8. Big whoop

In that situation I would simply call the state bar and ask for the names of a few firms in my area. Honestly, I think you're going to have a hard time problematizing this.