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law Times • July 11, 2011 FOCUS PAGE 15 Is it OK for personal injury firms to run TV ads? Some practitioners think referrals offer better route to high-value legal work BY ROBERT TODD Law Times I n a highly competitive mar- ketplace, personal injury law fi rms are increasingly taking to the airwaves to land clients. Turn on your local all- news radio station, and you're likely to at some point hear a commercial pitch from one of Ontario's personal injury bou- tiques touting all of the reasons why you should go to them if you're hurt in an accident. Yet the high-visibility ap- proach isn't for everyone. Just ask Bernard Gluckstein of To- ronto's Gluckstein & Associ- ates LLP. "People who are spending a considerable amount of money on advertising, to a great ex- tent, are the younger fi rms," says Gluckstein, who is a certi- fi ed specialist in civil litigation. "Unfortunately, the unsuspect- ing public doesn't really know who the good fi rms and bad fi rms are." Th e in-your-face approach taken by some fi rms must come as a shock to senior members of the bar like Gluckstein. When he began practising in 1962, the Law Society of Upper Can- ada prohibited advertising. "We learned to make sure that we gave great client service and relied on our clients to re- fer further cases to us," he says. "Also, by giving good service, the health-care professionals got to know who you were." Of course, a fi rm's approach to advertising likely refl ects its target clientele. Firms interest- ed in grabbing a high volume of clients for representation on relatively non-complex, low- value matters are likely drawn to the opportunity to get their name on TV, billboards or ra- dio ads. It's certainly their best chance to get top of mind for people who otherwise would likely open the Yellow Pages to research their legal service op- tions. Lawyers interested in tak- ing on high-value cases likely involving catastrophic inju- ries would simply be forced to fi eld a high volume of phone calls from prospective clients with low-value matters and re- fer them to other fi rms if they advertised heavily in the main- stream media. Gluckstein says most of his fi rm's referrals come from pre- vious clients and he longs for the days when the law society prohibited law fi rm advertising. "I'm fi nding now that there are a lot of fi rms who aren't qualifi ed [but are] advertising that they're specialists in the fi eld," he says. "Th ey get the case and then they refer it out to counsel." Th ere's good reason for such fi rms to take a pass on cases that they fi nd go beyond their level of expertise. "If somebody puts them- selves out as an expert in a par- ticular fi eld and if they handle the case and they don't handle it to the extent that an expert would handle it, they're open- ing themselves out to a mal- practice suit," he notes. Meanwhile, Gluckstein suggests personal injury fi rms focus their advertising invest- ments on specifi c segments of the health-care profession that It's what's inside that counts! ISSUE DATE FOCUS SECTION July 25 August 8 August 22 Forensics/Private Investigators Corporate/Commercial Law Health/Life Sciences Law September 5 Class Actions September 12 Human Rights Law September 19 Business/Competition Law September 26 Intellectual Property/ Trademark Law Litigation October 3 October 17 October 24 October 31 November 7 Insurance Law Trusts & Estates Law Real Estate Law Family Law November 14 Labour & Employment Law To advertise In an upcoming issue of Law Times, contact our sales team: Karen Lorimer 905-713-4339 karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com Kimberlee Pascoe 905-713-4342 kimberlee.pascoe@thomsonreuters.com Untitled-8 1www.lawtimesnews.com What's Inside 2X.indd 1 7/6/11 11:44:25 AM 7/5/11 3:55:19 PM have traditionally been a key source of referrals for high- value matters. But that's changing. Hos- pitals have recently indicat- ed that their staff members, such as doctors and social workers, aren't able to refer patients to lawyers. Th at shift has prompted fi rms to modify their cam- paigns to what Gluckstein refers to as "subtle advertis- ing." Th at means fi rms are now more likely to sponsor events at or involving hos- pitals or health-care profes- sionals. "Just to allow the health- care professionals to know they're there, not that they're going to get direct referrals, but somebody may come to one of the doctors or social workers and say, 'What do you think of this fi rm?' Th ey'll basically say, 'It's a good fi rm. Th ey know what they're doing.'" Gluckstein says that ar- rangement has worked out well for lawyers and hospitals alike. Th e lawyers get the increased exposure and promotion of Limitations on hospital referrals have caused some firms to switch to subtle forms of advertising, says Bernard Gluckstein. their services, while hospitals have benefi ted greatly from the sponsorship funding provided by law fi rms. James Howie of Howie Sacks & Henry LLP says his fi rm is most concerned about enhancing its reputation among other lawyers in order to foster referrals. Th at has meant a high portion of his fi rm's ad investment goes to legal publications. "We don't consider [the consumer press] to be of any great merit to our fi rm," says Howie, who notes that his fi rm doesn't even advertise in the Yellow Pages. "I know that other fi rms seem to do it quite regularly. You can open the pages of the Sun or turn on 680 News ra- dio and you will hear ads for other personal injury fi rms. I suspect that the reason they do it and continue to do it is that it attracts the type of work they would like." Howie says it's up to the law society to determine the legitimacy of law fi rm ads. Still, he admits he "might fi nd some ads mildly off en- sive. But I haven't heard any ads that are horribly over the top." 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