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Posts Tagged ‘quot’
"Data is to Information as Information is to Knowledge:" On Categorial Mistakes and Implementing Modern KM
13
Jul
“Last week someone tweeted a link to an article called “Who owns knowledge?” Fascinating title, right up my alley, couldn’t wait to read it. So I clicked away to the page hoping to find the answer to this esoteric question….
British Library continues mission "to give everybody access to as much of the world’s information as possible" by way of Google Books agreement
10
Jul
The British Library and Google have agreed that 250,000 out-of-copyright texts will be digitized at Google’s expense and made available at no charge on both the Library and Google Books websites. The scope is just a small fraction of the…
“If you asked me when was the last time I read a law review article, I’d have to think long and hard": Paraphrasing Chief Justice Roberts’ Remarks on the Relevance of the Legal Academy’s Scholarly Output
07
Jul
In his recent Legal Skills Prof Blog post titled Chief Justice Roberts Criticizes Law Profs, Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Professor of Law and Director of Legal Writing at Villanova wrote “[the Chief Justice] politely criticized legal academics for scholarship that…
Photographic "Dagger" into the Heart of the Dallas Mavericks Mismanagement Lawsuit?
02
Jul
In Mark Cuban Files The Ultimate “Fuck You” Legal Brief, Barry Petchesky reports on Mark Cuban’s recently filed motion for summary judgment brief in the lawsuits accusing Cuban of mismanaging the Dallas Mavericks by Ross Perot Jr. (a/k/a Hillwood Investment…
NJ Attorney Advertising Committee Rules that a TotalAttorneys WebSite is Misleading
30
Jun
The Committee on Attorney Advertising of the New Jersey Court System issued an Advisory Opinion this week that stated that a Total Bankruptcy web site, published by TotalAttorneys®, a law firm marketing and services organization based in Chicago, is misleading and in violation of the Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1 (a) .Download Full Opinion .
The Committee also ruled that the web site was not an impermissible referral service and that Attorneys are not flatly prohibited from paying for advertising on a "pay-per-lead" or "pay per click" basis. That’s good news for TotalAttorneys and other performance-based marketing schemes on the Internet.
The Committee sets out clearly that "Attorney advertising cannot be misleading or omit operative facts." and found that the website did not provide sufficient information to the user and is misleading.
In this case, the user was directed to only one attorney based on the purchase of exclusive rights to a geographical area. To avoid misleading consumers, the Committee stated, the methodology for the selection of the attorney’s name must be made clear, including the fact that the website limited participation to one (paying) attorney per geographical area. Further, the Committee specified that all requirements to participate in the website must be clearly specified; a full list of participating attorneys must be readily accessible, and the website must inform the user that the attorneys have paid a fee to participate.
It is easy for attorneys to violate their professional obligations and expose themselves to bar sanctions, by ignoring the fine print in their agreements with Internet-based marketing websites.
For example, no less a credible organization as Lexis-Nexis®, recently launched a direct to consumer web site, called EZLAW.COM. The website purports to offer wills, powers of attorney and advance directives forms bundled with legal advice for a fixed and reasonable fee. A goal I would heartily endorse.
However, the site seems to suffer from the same issues as the TotalAttorney’s web site when viewed through the lense of the New Jersey Advisory Opinion.
At EZLAW, the site operator provides a mechanism for consumers to assemble legal documents on-line and then make available a network of attorneys to provide legal advice as part of the offered package. In describing its Attorney Network, EZLAW states that:
They are all prescreened by EZLaw to ensure that you get professional, experienced and confidential legal counsel. To be included in our network, attorneys must meet our rigorous 12-point checklist of criteria.
This suggests that EZLAW is vouching for the quality of the qualifications of the participating attorneys, not only whether an attorney has practiced a number of years or maintains a certain level of malpractice, and this could be construed as misleading.
Moreover, the NJ Opinion states clearly that as a form of attorney advertising, " a full list of participating attorneys must be readily accessible," but on the EZLAW web site no list of participating attorneys is to be found.
Moreover the limited representation agreement executed by the client with the law firm is provided by EZLAW on behalf of the law firm, so the client never knows the identity of the law firm prior to entering into an engagement with the attorney. Normally you would expect that the client would enter into a limited retainer agreement directly with the law firm. I never heard of a retainer agreement that wasn’t entered into directly between the client and the law firm. Not in this case.
Click here for a copy of the Representation Agreement between EZLAW and the client. You decide whether this agreement is ethically compliant? I am interested in hearing other opinions about this agreement. If you have one. please comment.
So what’s the bottom line? Lawyer’s need to read the fine print. Lawyers need to have a full understanding of how their ethical obligations apply to these new Internet-based marketing schemes lest they be caught in a web of disciplinary proceedings that wasn’t part of the bargain.
So Much for 2011 Being a "More Boring Year:" CALI Has a New Director of Content Development
27
Jun
… and I can think of no better person for the gig. John Mayer announced at this year’s CALI Conference that Sarah Glassmayer has accepted the position of Director of Content Development. She will start her new job on August…
Summary of Harvard’s "Future of Law Libraries: The Future is Now?" Conference
20
Jun
Reportedly some 700 people viewed at least a portion of the live webcast of Harvard Law’s Future of Law Libraries: The Future is Now? conference on June 16. One member of my little county law library staff reported that the…
On Creating "Super" Databases: The Wilson-EBSCO Merger
06
Jun
Following up on Mark Giangrande’s And Then There Was One Fewer post, additional details provided by EBSCO including the supplied chart (below; click to enlarge) are available at InfoDocket’s New: Chart Showing How EBSCO and H.W. Wilson Databases Will Be…
Official Illinois Reports Published by West Not Yet West-Mart’s "Deal of the Day"
03
Jun
But, hey, Illinois Office Supreme Court Reports, 2d and Illinois Official Appellate Reports, 3d are both on sale today at West-Mart (both pages last visited on June 3, 2011) and you can buy them with an “assured pricing plan.” Due…
