Court amends lawyer ad rules: prior review of TV, radio ads adopted.

The Florida Supreme Court has approved most of the changes to the Bar's advertising rules recommended by the Board of Governors, including a requirement that TV and radio ads must be approved by the Bar before they are aired.

On the hot topic of Web site advertising, the court deferred ruling for now.

The court, though, also ordered a more wide-ranging study of advertising issues, recommended by Tampa attorney Bill Wagner, who served on the Bar's Advertising Task Force 2004.

That task force spent more than a year --beginning in February 2004--studying the advertising rules and its recommendations formed the basis for the board's proposals to the court.

The ruling came November 2 in In Re: Amendments to the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar--Advertising, case no. SC052194. The changes become effective January 1. Two justices partially dissented, but only where the court deviated from the Bar's recommendations.

When the court majority did diverge from the Bar's suggested rule amendments, it tended to be more restrictive.

"I am very pleased that the court adopted the vast majority of the Bar's recommendations," President Hank Coxe said. "The public will be better protected with prior review of television and radio advertisements, which is the most significant decision that the court made."

Coxe also said the Bar is happy to respond to the court's request for further input on some of the Bar's proposals, as well as the court's request that the Bar continue to study lawyer advertising and make further recommendations based on the results of that study."

Miami attorney Manny Morales, who chaired the Advertising Task Force 2004, said the court's calls for further studies on some issues could be a sign that with rapid changes in advertising and the practice of law itself, the court wants the Bar to continually monitor those trends and adjust the Bar's rules accordingly.

"Obviously this is an area that's going to be in a state of flux, and we'll change and adapt as we go along. This is probably an area that the Bar is always going to have to have an eye on," he said. "I think what we needed to do is take a look at our rules for right now [with the task force's review], and then I think the right thing to do is what they [the justices] said, 'Don't stop here but continue to look at this and give us an idea of what's going on with lawyer advertising and lawyer marketing.'"

Ironically, one of the most hotly debated proposed changes by the task force and...