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Advertising personal injury or work injury services

Clauses 23 to 40 of the Legal Profession Regulation 2005 and clauses 74 to 80 of the Workers Compensation Regulation 2003 effectively prohibit practitioners’ advertising of personal injury services.

What words are prohibited?

The Regulations define ‘personal injury’ and ‘work injury’ to extend to ‘any circumstance in which personal injury (or work injury) might occur, or any activity, event or circumstance that suggests or could suggest the possibility of personal injury (or work injury), or any connection to or association with personal injury [or work injury] or a cause of personal injury (or work injury).

On this basis, the Regulations would appear to prohibit the following words and expressions in solicitors’ advertising (effective as at 13/06/2007):

Are there any exceptions to advertising personal injury or work injury services?

The main exceptions relate to advertising speciality, legal education or publications finalised before 15 June 2005.

How can I advertise my speciality in personal injury or work injury services?

Advertising speciality can only be by means of:

• An entry in a practitioner directory that states only the name and contact details of the practitioner and any area of practice or accredited specialty of the practitioner. Practitioner directory’ means ‘a printed publication, directory or database that is published by a person in the ordinary course of the person’s business (and not by the barrister or solicitor concerned or a partner, employee or member of the practice of the barrister or solicitor)’. The Law Society and the OLSC take the view that the Yellow Pages does not qualify as a ‘practitioner directory’ as defined, or 
• A sign displayed at a place of business of the practitioner that states only the name and contact details of the practitioner and any accredited specialty of the practitioner, or
• An advertisement on an Internet website operated by the practitioner, the publication of which would be prevented solely because it refers to personal injury or personal injury legal services in a statement of accredited specialty of the practitioner. Accredited specialists’ advertising of their personal injury specialty on the Internet is limited to a statement of that specialty. It does not allow for any other detail of the practitioner’s areas of work, experience or expertise.

As regards the use of the specialist logo and other matters, practitioners can refer further to FAQs About Advertising.

What about legal education?

The Regulations allows for an exception ‘to the extent that [the advertising] relates only to legal education and is published to members of the legal profession by a person in the ordinary course of the person’s business or functions as a provider of legal education’. The limited scope of this exception should be noted. It will not apply in respect of publication to an audience which includes persons who have not been admitted as a member of the legal profession in an Australian jurisdiction.

Finalised publications

The Regulations do ‘not prevent the publication of an advertisement in a printed publication the contents of which were finalised (by the publisher of that publication) before 15 June 2005. A specific advice to the profession regarding the effect of previous transitional provisions on the 2004 Yellow Pages was published in Caveat 239.

• A wilful breach of the Regulations constitutes an offence: clause 24(1), LPR, 75 WCR
• A wilful breach is also declared to be professional misconduct: 24(1), LPR