Direct Mail Solicitation After An Accident Or Speeding Ticket: Good Or Bad?
A relative of mine contacted me a few weeks back and asked me if I handled speeding tickets in New Jersey. She had been ticketed, and she lives in Pennsylvania. I told her I did not handle those cases. Then she went on to explain that she had been solicited in writing by three law firms in one week, all of whom offered their services. She wanted to know if she should hire one of those firms to defend her at the traffic hearing. She sent me the letters and I gave her my best advice. I found the letters accurate and helpful, albeit a bit aggressive.
At present, New Jersey lawmakers are debating bills that would require lawyers, as well as doctors, accountants, and any other professional who solicit by mail by obtaining public records, such as speeding tickets, police reports and the like, to potential clients and customers. The sponsor of one of the bills, New Jersey State Senator Nicholas Scutari, (D. Union County), himself a lawyer, sees the mail solicitation practice as demeaning to professionals. This is a view shared, for instance, by bar associations across the country. Senator Scutari favors a 30 day waiting period be written into the present law in New Jersey which would disallow any direct mail solicitation immediately following an incident, for instance a car accident.
Pennsylvania, as with most states, allows direct mail solicitation, but at least as concerns lawyer written communication, any misleading written material sent to a prospective client, no matter how the information is obtained, is impermissible. Thus, lawyers in Pennsylvania can scour through police reports to search for the names and addresses of accident victims, and lawyers who defend people in traffic court can find potential clients in a similar way, and write to them.
I agree with Senator Scutari. As a way to get new clients, it is an unseemly method. But the problem is that victims of accidents need to have access to information about their rights; they need to know what they should and should not be doing following an accident. I write about this subject often.
While I do not favor the practice of direct mail solicitation from public records such as police reports, it is a very common practice for insurance adjuster to reach out to accident victims immediately following accidents in order to get the person to do any number of things; for instance to:
- Sign a general release in exchange for a check to cover all injuries and damages;
- Sign a release for medical records;
- Give a recorded statement.
The point is, if insurance companies have this ability to speak to accident victims right away, then a 30 day waiting period imposed on lawyers, is unfair to the public. Yes the public has access to the internet and can find good material online. But not all accident victims know their rights or have access to the internet. The right of consumers to have easy access to information trumps the somewhat distasteful practice of direct mail solicitation immediately after an accident, or after someone gets a speeding ticket after her speeding ticket.
Update:
The issue of mail solicitation by lawyers was at the forefront of an article in the Wall Street Journal on December 7, 2010. The story has to do with the explosion at the Massey Energy Company coal mine in Dawes, West Virginia, where 29 miners were killed. The company is making settlement offers to the families of the miners who died. The article quotes Tommy Davis, whose son was killed in the explosion as stating he was in no hurry to settle with Massey, yet had thrown out all of the mail solicitations sent by lawyers interested in representing the victims. That's understandable, but without representation, Mr. Davis could be facing a statute of limitations problem, and could be left without advice as to whether the Massey offer is a fair one or not. From the article, it appears as though the offers by Massey take into account many factors which an experienced personal injury lawyer would evaluate, such as the interplay or setoff with workers compensation benefits. So while recipients of mail solicitation by lawyers in the Massey coal mine explosion case may find the letters distasteful, the victims' families cannot be left in the dark and think they would get a fair shake from the at fault party or their insurance company. They need proper representation.
Interesting article, related to how public insurance adjusters must solicit via direct mail in order to notify insureds that they have the right to retain their own adjuster instead of using the company's adjuster.