their content.
paralegal practitioner may pay the reasonable cost of advertising permitted bythese Rules
and may pay the usual charges of a legal referral service or other legalservice plan.
Comment
Toassist the public in learning about and obtaining legal services, licensedparalegal practitioners should be allowed to make known their services not onlythrough reputation
but also through organized information campaigns in the form of advertising. Advertisinginvolves an active quest for clients, contrary to the tradition that
paralegal practitioner's name or firm name, address, email address, website andtelephone number; the kinds of services the licensed paralegal practitionerwill undertake; the basis
on which the licensed paralegal practitioner's fees are determined, includingprices for
specific services and payment and credit arrangements; a licensed paralegalpractitioner's foreign language ability; names of references and, with theirconsent, names of clients regularly represented; and other information thatmight invite the attention of those
seeking legal assistance.
television and other forms of advertising, against advertising going beyondspecified facts about a licensed paralegal practitioner or against"undignified" advertising. Television, the Internet and other formsof electronic communication are now among the most powerful
media for getting information to the public, particularly persons of low andmoderate
income; prohibiting television, Internet, and other forms of electronic
that the Bar can accurately forecast the kind of information that the publicwould regard as relevant. But see Rule 7.3 of the Licensed ParalegalPractitioner Rules of Professional
Conduct for the prohibition against a solicitation through a real-timeelectronic exchange initiated by the licensed paralegal practitioner.
PayingOthers to Recommend a Licensed Paralegal Practitioner
for channeling professional work in a manner that violates Rule 7.3 of theLicensed
Paralegal Practitioner Rules of Professional Conduct. A communication containsa recommendation if it endorses or vouches for a licensed paralegalpractitioner?s
credentials, abilities, competence, character, or other professional qualities.Paragraph (f), however, allows a licensed paralegal practitioner to pay foradvertising and
communications permitted by this rule, including the costs of print directorylistings, on-
line directory listings, newspaper ads, television and radio airtime,domain-name
registrations, sponsorship fees, Internet-based advertisements and groupadvertising. A licensed paralegal practitioner may compensate employees, agentsand vendors who are engaged to provide marketing or client-developmentservices, such as publicists, public- relations personnel, business-developmentstaff and website designers. Moreover, a
licensed paralegal practitioner may pay others for generating client leads,such as Internet- based client leads, as long as the lead generator does notrecommend the licensed paralegal practitioner, and any payment to the leadgenerator is consistent with the licensed
paralegal practitioner?s obligations under these rules. To comply with Rule 7.1of the
Licensed Paralegal Practitioner Rules of Professional Conduct, a licensedparalegal practitioner must not pay a lead generator that states, implies, orcreates a reasonable impression that it is recommending the licensed paralegalpractitioner is making the
referral without payment from the licensed paralegal practitioner, or hasanalyzed a
person?s legal problems when determining which lawyer should receive thereferral. See
Rule 5.3 of the Licensed Paralegal Practitioner Rules of Professional Conduct(duties of licensed paralegal practitioners and law firms with respect to theconduct of non-lawyers
and non-licensed paralegal practitioners); Rule 8.4(a) of the LicensedParalegal
Practitioner Rules of Professional Conduct (duty to avoid violating the Rulesthrough the
acts of another).
a referral service. A legal service plan is a prepaid or group legal serviceplan or a similar
delivery system that assists prospective clients to secure legalrepresentation. A licensed paralegal practitioner referral service, on theother hand, is an organization that holds itself
out to the public to provide referrals to licensed paralegal practitioners withappropriate experience in the subject matter of the representation. No feegenerating referral may be
made to any licensed paralegal practitioner or firm that has an ownershipinterest in, or
who operates or is employed by, the licensed paralegal practitioner referralservice, or who
is associated with a firm that has an ownership interest in, or operates or isemployed by,
the licensed paralegal practitioner referralservice.
licensed paralegal practitioner?s professional obligations. See Rule 5.3 of theLicensed Paralegal Practitioner Rules of Professional Conduct. Legal serviceplans and licensed paralegal practitioner referral services may communicatewith the public, but such communication must be in conformity with these Rules.Thus, advertising must not be false
or misleading, as would be the case if the communications of a groupadvertising program
or a group legal services plan would mislead the public to think that it was alicensed
paralegal practitioner referral service sponsored by a state agency or barassociation. Nor
could the licensed paralegal practitioner allow in-person, telephonic, orreal-time contacts
that would violate Rule 7.3.
[8a]Reserved.
? EffectiveJanuary 16, 2019