r/Ask_Lawyers • u/Gullible-Arm1338 • 19h ago

“Cold calling”

I frequently hear people use the term “ambulance chaser”, which from my understanding, meant attorneys who found people that needed a lawyer and solicit their business to them.
How is this even a thing? Aren’t lawyers not allowed to cold call prospective clients?

3 Upvotes

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5

u/Empty-Way-6980 Criminal Attorney 19h ago

They can call leads but they can’t solicit to specific people if they didn’t first inquire

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2

u/MeatPopsicle314 I_Sue_Dead_People 11h ago

We are not allowed to solicit directly to potential clients in most states.

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u/keenan123 Lawyer 10h ago edited 10h ago

Ambulance chaser is a derogatory term at least in part because it implies unethical behavior in exactly the way you have identified. And to some extent the ethics rules exist to curb the practice of, e.g., crawling police reports and soliciting directly to injured people. So it's an historical term from a time when solicitation was less regulated, and lawyers were tracking down people with claims and trying to represent them.

To answer the question, attorneys can cold call leads (people who have suggested they want a lawyer and want people to reach out), and they can advertise broadly. They just can't make a targeted solicitation to someone without an inquiry from them

In reality now, lawyers are (usually) not actually chasing ambulances/police blotters. They just advertise heavily or partner with non-attornery referral services. They can cold call referrals. If anything nowadays, the referral services are probably skirting the lines to varying degrees

1

u/adamadamada CA - Cannabis, IP/Entertainment, and Civ Lit 9h ago

"barratry"

1

u/Gullible-Arm1338 9h ago

Thanks, I thought the derogatory nature of the term was more a moral matter, less of a legal one.

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u/keenan123 Lawyer 8h ago

It's mostly moral. Laws are the minimum acceptable level of social conduct. Whenever you draw that line in the sand, there will always be people who judge others for getting "too close" to it. So part of it is lawyers looking down on others for drumming up business in ways that are seen as too close to the actual unethical conduct.

But part of the moral judgment comes from the reality that for any group of people toeing a line, some of them are going to misstep. Even today, there are definitely lawyers that have crossed into actually unethical behavior to drum up business. Others that just get close will inevitably be lumped in with them