The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 15 years ago today that the Florida Bar would be legally authorized to prohibit lawyers in Florida from solicitation accident victims or their family members within 30 days of the accident.  The ruling stated that the Florida Bar Association had substantial interests in protecting the privacy rights of accident victims and the reputations of attorneys.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion back in 1995 was unexpected in light of previous high court rulings on attorney speech.

The bar had passed the rule after conducting a two-year study which showed that many people looked unfavorably on the legal profession using such advertising.

A lawyer-referral service known as Went For It, Inc. and its attorney owner argued that the rule infringed on the First Amendment rights of attorneys and noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had protected “truthful” attorney ads since 1977.

However, a sharply divided Supreme Court reversed the lower courts and reasoned that the public perceived many attorney-solicitation letters as an invasion of privacy that reflected poorly on the legal profession. They cited citizen letters, including one that read: “I consider the unsolicited contact from you after my child’s accident to be of the rankest form of ambulance chasing and in incredibly poor taste.”

The decision led other states to pass similar waiting periods on solicitation letters.