Sugar refinery explosion attracts NY & Texas lawyers -- and generates controversy
A sugar refinery explosion last week at Port Wentworth near Savannah has apparently drawn out of state lawyers like vultures trying to solicit victims' families, either violating or skating around the edge of Bar ethical rules. Greg Bluestein of Associated Press has reported that a Dallas, Texas, lawyer ran a full page ad in the Savannah Morning News soliciting clients from the explosion. The article also reports that lawyers have been soliciting victims' families at a burn clinic in Augusta. Friends in Savannah have passed along to me shocking rumors that lawyers from one of the largest corporate law firms in Atlanta were seen trolling the emergency room at Memorial Hospital in Savannah after the blast.
State Bar of Georgia General Counsel William P. Smith III traveled to Savannah on Thursday to investigate complaints of lawyers improperly soliciting victims of last week's Imperial Sugar refinery explosion. Smith said he plans to pursue disciplinary action against lawyers who may have broken State Bar rules—using reciprocity agreements with other states to pursue those who aren't licensed to practice in Georgia. But he said that newspaper ads alerting victims of legal options have not violated State Bar rules that prohibit in-person solicitation.
While the Georgia Bar has rules against direct mail solicitation of injury victims within thirty days of an injury, there is no such rule against advertising in media within thirty days. I am on the Disciplinary Rules and Procedures Committee of the State Bar of Georgia. Undoubtedly we will discuss this situation in the months to come. Something should be done about the predatory, vulture-like behavior of lawyers who swoop in immediately after a disaster. That makes us all look bad. At the same time, we know that potential defendants in truck crashes and mass disasters have their defense counsel and investigative teams swarming over a scene before the smoke clears while victims have no one looking out for their interests. We should look for a way to strike a balance that puts a stop to unseemly, predatory conduct while protecting the critical interests of the victims.
Ken Shigley is a trucking and products safety attorney based in Atlanta, Georgia.
I wish I thought any nobility remained to be protected within the profession I joined 24 years ago, but i don't. It's long gone-- too far gone for hope.
As for the free market--which we alone are prohibited from partaking in--no one beefs when Big Pharma trolls for bucks by advertising Drug A, B, and C in full page ads in national newspapers, even though it is well known that the power of suggestion causes a given percentage of people to decide thay have any goven set of symptoms they read about. (The latest example is the "Fight the Fog" ads.)
These people-- the newly "ill" who will ask their doctors for a new expensive remedy they don't need-- AND WON'T PAY FOR, as the insurance company will!!-- are being harmed far more than the clients who may find a lawyer thru a media ad.
Larry Parker took care of making us all look bad YEARS ago, and he skirted the law passed in California to stop his misleading "Larry Parker got me 2.3 million dollars" ad by having the same talking head say "Larry Parker got me... you know the story!"
Brilliant marketing... horrible PR for any lawyer with a shred of decency. But it's far too late to save the culture.
It sounds to me as though the only problems Georgia lawyers are having with this media blitz is the competition, not the ethics.
I think the canons of ethics are outdated as to that which does no harm --and the larger and the lawyer culture BOTH now sneer at the quaint concept of fiduciary duty. A far harder "fix" and a more important one.
