According to an article on the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal web site, the Florida Bar's Board of Governors recently decided that it is permissible for Florida attorneys to text prospective clients. While one-off texting with existing clients is nothing new, the Florida decision essentially allows bulk advertising messages to be sent out by text for the purpose of attracting new clients. The ABA article states that Florida is only the second state so far to allow this.
While some attorneys shrug and see this decision as nothing more than a sign of changing times, others feel that texting prospective clients is inappropriate, impermissible under the Rules of Professional Conduct, and/or just out-and-out tacky. I personally feel that text messages are even more intrusive than impermissible telephone calls, since there's an entire generation out there which leaps like Pavlov's dogs every time a text message arrives. The article doesn't state whether the Florida Board discussed factors such as maximum file size, length, content, or frequency of messaging. While recipients can opt out of future texts, they never should have been put in a position where doing so was required.
Also, what hasn't been discussed much yet is the fact that the Florida decision is an acknowledgment that the pool of prospective clients is changing. While older clients may use the Yellow Pages and the recommendations of people they trust to find attorneys, younger clients are more likely to use their smartphones and social media requests to locate legal counsel. Law firms will have to adjust their marketing efforts to reach a generation raised from birth with mobile technology, just as they built their first-generation web sites in the early to mid-1990s to attract the users of the "Information Superhighway".
While New Hampshire hasn't adopted a similar rule on texting yet, the Florida decision should nevertheless be a wake-up call for change.
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