Panel asked to consider pre-screening of ads.

After its first quick look at preliminary recommendations for changes to Bar advertising rules, the Bar Board of Governors has asked for draft alternative proposals that could allow for mandatory screening of ads before they are aired or published.

The board, at its October meeting, also asked the Advertising Task Force 2004 to draft alternative rules relating to language in ads that creates unjustified expectations.

Board members and task force Vice Chair Chobee Ebbets presented the panel's preliminary recommendations for rule changes, and noted the board will have a detailed discussion at its December 10 meeting in Naples.

The task force will take public input on its suggestions and work on a final report at the Bar's January Midyear Meeting in Miami. Bar President Kelly Overstreet Johnson, who appointed the task force last year, said if that is ready, the board could take it up for final action at its January 28, 2005, meeting.

"It is a working draft that has a lot of need for improvement, but it does identify the key issues for you," Ebbets said. "We want to have a revision of the rules that goes up to the Supreme Court that again puts us at the forefront of advertising rules."

The issue of prescreening ads came up as Ebbets went over some of the task force's tentative recommendations. (See stories in the August 15 and October 1 Bar News. The preliminary recommendations are also posted on the Bar's Web site, www.flabar.org.)

He noted that the task force proposed a voluntary program, where lawyers who submitted ads before publication or broadcast would be guaranteed not to be prosecuted if they got the Bar's approval first. The Bar would have 15 days to respond, although that response could include a request for clarification or more information.

Ebbets also reported that Bar Counsel Barry Richard has been asked to prepare a brief on the constitutionality of requiring a review of ads before they are aired or printed, since that raises prior restraint issues. Task force members had questioned whether mandatory pre-screening would pass constitutional muster.

Such a rule change would likely involve an expensive constitutional lawsuit, he said.

"Regardless of what the task force has done in streamlining the rules and making some vast improvement, the issue of pre-review belongs to this board as a policy issue," he said.

Board member Mike Glazer, who is the designated reviewer for all advertising grievance cases from the Bar's Statewide...