Court revises rules for lawyers

The Iowa Supreme Court has issued revised advertising guidelines for lawyers. The goal’s to get info about lawyers to the public, and let lawyers tell people what they do. For years, lawyers were simply barred from advertising, and Iowa Bar Association president Joe Holland says the high court’s concern is that if it’s allowed, it be done with dignity. It’s been observed that advertising contains “puffery,” and the court wants lawyer advertising to be accurate. One thing that’s carefully outlined is how or when an attorney can advertise a price they’ll charge for legal work.The rules have a list of services for which a price can be set, with rules so a client talking to different lawyers knows what they’re buying. The revised list, like the original set of guidelines, is made up in part of ideas put forth by Iowa’s lawyers themselves.Some were proposed by the bar association, some the Supreme Court came up with. Among the rules: no “fine print.” At least nine-point type must be used for details in legal papers. A lawyer can’t claim to be a specialist or expert unless they can prove lots of work in that area exclusively and in some cases been recognized by a group that DOES specialize in a certain kind of law.