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Florida Supreme Court changes effective date for website rule amendments to July 1, 2010, but stays implementation. [Added 2/8/10, 6/8/10] In response to a request from the Florida Bar, the Florida Supreme Court ordered that the changes to the advertising rule governing lawyer and law firm websites (Rule 4-7.6) would become effective on July 1, 2010, rather than the originally announced date of January 1, 2010. By its order dated June 10, 2010, the Florida Supreme Court granted the Florida Bar's emergency motion for a stay and delayed the implementation of the new website advertising rules. The rules will now take effect "90 days from the date of the Court's ruling on In re: Amendments to the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar - Rule 4-7.6, Computer Accessed Communications, SC10-1014. For more information, see the Florida Bar's website or watch sunEthics.com for updates (rule changes are tracked on the sunEthics "Proposed Changes to Florida Bar Rules" page). The Florida Supreme Court previously approved substantial revisions to the rule governing lawyer and law firm websites. Click here for a summary of the changes. Following up on the Court's action, the Florida Bar's Standing Committee on Advertising adopted "Guidelines for Lawyer and Law Firm Websites" to help lawyers bring their websites into compliance with the new rule. The Bar submitted these Guidelines to the Supreme Court for informational purposes. The Court responded by informing the Bar that the Guidelines were more than an "interpretation" of the rules and directed the Bar to submit to the Court proposed rule changes that would be consistent with the approach described in the Guidelines. The Bar has filed the proposed changes with the Court. The proposed rule would spell out procedures that, if followed, would have the effect of turning a website or a portion of it into information “requested” by viewer. The "requested" information would be exempt from the advertising rules, thus allowing inclusion of items such as testimonials, statements characterizing the quality of services, and listings of past results. Click here to see the proposed rule changes. Click here for an informative story in the June 15, 2010, issue of the Florida Bar News. Watch sunEthics.com for updates. |
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