The Straight Truth About Lawyer Advertising
Welcome and thank you for joining me. I am Gerry Ojinski in New York Medical malpractice and personal injury trial lawyer practicing law here in the state of New York. Today’s topic is the straight truth about lawyer advertising. I want to thank you for coming into my office for a few minutes, so I can talk with you about how important this is. if you need an attorney, let us say you go to the Yellow Pages to try and find an attorney, here is what you need to know. Typically, you are going to open up the book and you are going to find about 30 or forty pages worth of yellow pages ads. But let me ask you a question, how do you know which lawyer is right for you? How are you able to distinguish one law firm from another simply by looking at the ads in the Yellow Pages? In all likelihood, the photographs that you see in the Yellow Pages ads are going to be pictures of crashed cars, picture of a gavel, a picture of a court room or maybe you are going to see some attorney standing there looking really mean with their arms folded. So how do you distinguish whether one firm is right for you? Also, the fact that an attorney has a small quarter page ad, does that mean that they are not as good as the law firm that has a big full page ad? What about those law firms who have double full page ads or four full page ads? Those ads literally, you can take the name of one law firm off of one ad, put on another and you as a consumer are never really going to know the difference as to whether one law firm has the ability to properly represent you in your matter. So how do you distinguish one firm from another and how do you figure out which firm is right for you? Well, here is a straight truth about these advertisements. The fact is, you have to look critically to see which firm offers the most experience, for cases just like yours. Do they handle medical malpractice cases similar to the ones that you are inquiring about, have they handled accident cases like yours, maybe you were involved in a bicycle accident or car or truck accident and you want to know what type of experience they have had. All of these advertisements tend to scream at you. They say, come to us, we are the best, we are great. Look at all of the results we have accomplished, come to us! That is why! But let me ask you this question, what information do these lawyer ads provide to you that is going to tell you whether or not this firm is right for you? The problem with most Yellow Pages ads is that, they offer very little information. if those pictures of crashed cars and people being taken away in ambulances make you feel all warm and fuzzy and that is the kind of firm that you want, then by all means, you go ahead and go there, I am sure you will feel comfortable there. For the most part, those photographs showing and depicting terrible accidents and injuries do not really make people want to pick up the phone and call. There are some law firms who will accept the client into their office, take them on as a client and then send them out to another attorney because they do not handle those particular matters, so when you call up that law firm, you need to ask a number of things. Importantly, whether they hold on to your case, how much experience do they have handling your particular type of case, you need to know who is going to handle your case on a day to day basis. Is it going to be the trial attorney? Is it going to be a junior associate? Is it going to be a paralegal because often times, in bigger firms, you will not get to see and speak to the Senior Trial Attorney who may ultimately try your case until you get to trial. If you are going to be deciding on an attorney from the Yellow Pages, look critically at each ad, look to see what information they give you as a potential client so they inform you and advice you of things you need to know like how lawsuits work. How do you know the process? How do you know what the lawyer needs to look for in order to evaluate whether or not you have a case and here is the bottom line, do you really want to