Monday, March 26, 2018

Florida amends rules regarding lawyer referrals to include online for-profit services

Earlier this month the Florida Supreme Court amended the state’s lawyer referral rules to include for-profit “matching” sites and lawyer directories,, such as Avvo Legal Services, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom.  You can find the amendments here.

According to the court the amendments create a single regulatory scheme that includes for-profit lawyer referral services, pooled advertising programs, lawyer directories, internet “matching” sites and lead generation services.

However, the rule did not change some of the current requirements to which some of the online services object.  For example, the rule still bans fee-sharing with non-lawyers which is the main reason ethics opinions in other jurisdictions have held that participating in services like Avvo Legal Services would be unethical.

Read more about the new rules here.

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