"... I am frankly embarrassed by the inundation of billboards and TV ads for personal injury lawyers who have little respect within the profession and seldom if ever set foot in a courtroom."
Those words were written on a blog by a self-described serious personal injury attorney in Atlanta.
In a post published in April, Ken Shigley took to task plaintiffs' lawyers who advertise heavily but lack solid professional track records.
"If you or a loved one has a serious injury or wrongful death case, you would do better throwing a dart at the attorneys section of the phone book than choosing a lawyer on the basis of a billboard or a 30 second TV ad," he wrote. "At least you would have a chance of getting to a decent, honest attorney who would know how to identify a specialist for an appropriate referral, rather than a 'mill' that focuses on volume and accepts low offers rather than doing the hard work of litigation.
"The subtly misleading slogans of the billboard and TV lawyers, e.g., 'one call that's all' and 'all the help the law allows,' and their use of celebrity spokesmen on TV, does a real disservice to members of the public who are drawn into personal injury 'mills' rather than to serious lawyers who would fight for them."
Out of curiosity, Shigley wrote, he ran a search of the names of the top advertising lawyers in metro Atlanta, seeking reported decisions in which they appeared representing a party.
He found minimal reported court decisions and losses. One lawyer who portrays himself as a specialist in trucking litigation has never tried a trucking accident case, nor does anyone in his firm participate in the organizations of trucking trial attorneys.
In California, personal injury lawyers have been airing ads about asbestos exposure, at least one with a "mesothelioma hotline" number to call. A number of web sites also offer to match potential plaintiffs with an attorney in their area. One such site contains the following disclosure: "All attorney listings are a paid attorney advertisement, and do not in any way constitute a referral or endorsement by an approved or authorized lawyer referral service."