Pennsylvania Code › Title 204 - JUDICIAL SYSTEM GENERAL PROVISIONS › Part V - PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND CONDUCT › Subpart A - PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY › Chapter 81 - RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT › Subchapter A - RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT › INFORMATION ABOUT LEGAL SERVICES › Rule 7.3 - Solicitation of Clients

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a) A lawyer
						shall not solicit in-person or by intermediary professional employment from a
						person with whom the lawyer has no family or prior professional relationship
						when a significant motive for the lawyer's doing so is the lawyer's pecuniary
						gain, unless the person contacted is a lawyer or has a family, close personal,
						or prior professional relationship with the lawyer. The term "solicit" includes
						contact in-person by telephone or by real-time electronic communication, but,
						subject to the requirements of Rule
						7.1 and Rule
						7.3(b), does not
						include written communications, which may include targeted, direct mail
						advertisements.
(b) A lawyer may
						contact, or send a written communication to, the target of the solicitation for
						the purpose of obtaining professional employment unless:
(1) the lawyer knows or reasonably should
						know that the physical, emotional or mental state of the person is such that
						the person could not exercise reasonable judgment in employing a
						lawyer;
(2) the person has made
						known to the lawyer a desire not to receive communications from the
						lawyer;
(3) the communication
						involves coercion, duress, or harassment; or
(4) the communication is a solicitation to a
						party who has been named as a defendant or respondent in a domestic relations
						action. In such cases, the lawyer shall wait until proof of service appears on
						the docket before communication with the named defendant or respondent.
Comment:
(1) A solicitation is a targeted
						communication initiated by the lawyer that is directed to a specific person and
						that offers to provide, or can reasonably be understood as offering to provide,
						legal services. In contrast, a lawyer's communication typically does not
						constitute a solicitation if it is directed to the general public, such as
						through a billboard, an Internet banner advertisement, a website or a
						television commercial, or if it is in response to a request for information or
						is automatically generated in response to Internet searches.
(2) There is a potential for abuse when a
						solicitation involves direct in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic
						contact by a lawyer with someone known to need legal services. These forms of
						contact subject a person to the private importuning of a trained advocate, in a
						direct interpersonal encounter. The person who may already feel overwhelmed by
						the circumstances giving rise to the need for legal services, may find it
						difficult fully to evaluate all available alternatives with reasoned judgment
						and appropriate self-interest in the face of the lawyer's presence and
						insistence upon being retained immediately. The situation is fraught with the
						possibility of undue influence, intimidation, and over-reaching.
(3) This potential for abuse inherent in
						direct in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic solicitation justifies
						its prohibition, particularly since lawyers have alternative means of conveying
						necessary information to those who may be in need of legal services. In
						particular, communications can be mailed or transmitted by email or other
						electronic means that do not involve real-time contact and do not violate other
						laws governing solicitations. These forms of communications and solicitations
						make it possible for the public to be informed about the need for legal
						services, and about the qualifications of available lawyers and law firms,
						without subjecting the public to direct in-person, telephone or real-time
						electronic persuasion that may overwhelm a person's judgment.
(4) The use of general advertising and
						written, recorded or electronic communications to transmit information from
						lawyer to the public, rather than direct in-person, live telephone or real-time
						electronic contact, will help to assure that the information flows cleanly as
						well as freely. The contents of advertisements and communications permitted
						under Rule
						7.2 can be permanently recorded
						so that they cannot be disputed and may be shared with others who know the
						lawyer. This potential for informal review is itself likely to help guard
						against statements and claims that might constitute false and misleading
						communications, in violation of Rule
						7.1 The contents of direct
						in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic contact can be disputed and
						may not be subject to third-party scrutiny. Consequently, they are much more
						likely to approach (and occasionally cross) the dividing line between accurate
						representations from those that are false and misleading.
(5) There is far less likelihood that a
						lawyer would engage in abusive practices against a former client, or a person
						with whom the lawyer has a close personal or family relationship, or in
						situations in which the lawyer is motivated by considerations other than the
						lawyer's pecuniary gain. Nor is there a serious potential for abuse when the
						person contacted is a lawyer. Consequently, the general prohibition in Rule
						7.3(a) is not
						applicable in those situations. Also, paragraph (a) is not intended to prohibit
						a lawyer from participating in constitutionally protected activities of public
						or charitable legal-service organizations or bona fide political, social,
						civic, fraternal, employee or trade organizations whose purposes include
						providing or recommending legal services to their members or
						beneficiaries.
(6) But even
						permitted forms of solicitation can be abused. Thus, any solicitation which
						contains information which is false or misleading within the meaning of Rule
						7.1, which involves coercion,
						duress or harassment within the meaning of Rule
						7.3(b)(3), or
						which involves contact with someone who has made known to the lawyer desire not
						to be solicited by the lawyer within the meaning of Rule
						7.3(b)(2) is
						prohibited. Moreover, if after sending a letter or other communication as
						permitted by Rule
						7.2 the lawyer receives no
						response, any further effort to communicate with the recipient of the
						communication may violate the provisions of Rule
						7.3(b).
(7) This Rule is not intended to prohibit a
						lawyer from contacting representatives of organizations or groups that may be
						interested in establishing a group or prepaid legal plan for their members,
						insureds, beneficiaries or other third-parties for the purposes informing such
						entities of the availability of and details concerning the plan or arrangement
						which the lawyer or lawyer's firm is willing to offer. This form of
						communication is not directed to people who are seeking legal services for
						themselves. Rather, it is usually addressed to an individual acting in a
						fiduciary capacity seeking a supplier of legal services for others who may, if
						they choose, become prospective clients of the lawyer. Under these
						circumstances, the activity which the lawyer undertakes in communicating with
						such representatives and the type of information transmitted to the individual
						are functionally similar to and serve the same purpose as advertising permitted
						under Rule 7.2.
(8) In this
						instance, the term "domestic relations action" includes the actions governed by
						the Family Court Rules,
see
Pa.R.C.P. No. 1931(a), and actions
						pursuant to the Protection of Victims of Sexual Violence or Intimidation Act,
see
42 Pa.C.S. §§
															62A 03
et seq.
In such cases, a defendant/respondent party's receipt
						of a lawyer's solicitation prior to being served with the complaint can
						increase the risk of a violent confrontation between the parties. The
						prohibition in RPC 7.3(b)(4) against any solicitation prior to proof of service
						appearing on the docket is intended to reduce any such risk and allow for the
						plaintiff to take any appropriate steps.