Friday, January 15, 2010
Connecticut Ethics Complaint FIled Against TotalAttorneys and Particiating Attorneys Dismissed.
Connecticut dismissed the case pending against 5 attorneys who purchased lead generation services from Total Attorneys, Inc. The state claimed that attorneys who participated in the pay per lead program offered by TotalAttorneys was actually a pay for referrals program. Attorneys in Connecticut and in 46 other states within the United States are barred by law from paying for referrals. The charge is a felony offense in the state of Connecticut.
All the attorneys that were named as defendants were cleared by the Statewide Grievance Committee. There were no further dismissals in the case but it seems likely that the other Connecticut attorneys that we named in the complaint will be cleared as well.
There were no specific details in the summary decision to dismiss the case as to why the defendants’ case and charges were dropped as of yet. A full decision is expected to be made public in the next few weeks. No comments from the committee have been released.
At this time, the state of Connecticut is the only state to hold any formal hearings on the matter of pay per lead services and advertising for attorneys. 47 states have received complaints about the participation of attorney pay per lead programs but none have taken any action.
The opinions of the attorneys who were named in the complaint have stated that the service is simply lawyer advertising and that they are not paying for referrals but rather paying for advertising that generates new client intakes.
The company TotalAttorneys manages and owns several web site for different areas of law such as bankruptcy, divorce, and dui. Each site works independently but operates in like fashion. Lawyers can sign up to pay around $70 for leads generated through the web sites based on practice area and city. The contact information is submitted by the web site user and then delivered to the attorneys who are participating.
Lawyer Success, Inc. Reaction:
This is a slippery slope in our opinion. TotalAttorneys doesn’t appear to be charging attorneys for referrals as long as they continue to operate in their current form. The definition of a referral is when a client or patient is recommend from one professional service provider to another professional service provider with or without compensation. Does TotalAttorneys make a referral. In the case of website submission forms we believe the answer is no. We also believe that TotalAttorneys sends the leads to more than one law firm which really does not fit with the technical definition of a referral.
Click here to see Lawyer Pay Per Call costs for your law firm.
