Advertising Bar Regulations For Kentucky

When building digital marketing campaigns for law firms, it’s important to be mindful of your state’s bar regulations for advertising. In this article we’ll go over some of the high level points to look out for.

The Kentucky Supreme Court Rules related to internet marketing and advertising online took effect on July 15, 2009.

AAC Adv. Reg. No. 1: False, Deceptive and Misleading Advertising:

This lawyer advertising rule identifies certain types of content that may render an advertisement false, deceptive or misleading. It applies only to communications by or on behalf of a lawyer or law firm that concern legal services available from the lawyer or firm and:

• are disseminated over electronic broadcast media, including television and radio advertisements;
• are published in public print media, including advertisements in newspapers, billboards, magazines and telephone directories;
• appear in any print or electronic publication disseminated by a third party, unless the third party is not controlled by the lawyer and for which distribution the lawyer pays no consideration, including advertisements that appear in programs for public events or in newsletters, directories or other publications of civic organizations, charitable entities and educational institutions;
• are accessible to the public on the Internet, including home pages and World Wide Web sites;
• are issued as unsolicited electronic mail (“e-mail”) communications to one or more persons with whom the lawyer or firm has no family relationship or prior professional relationship;
• are contained in newsletters, brochures, pamphlets or other printed materials provided to prospective clients; or
• constitute solicitation of professional employment from a prospective client within the scope of SCR 3.130(4.5).

Kentucky differs from most states in that it requires the attorney to submit many types of updates on the website to the Attorneys’ Advertising Commission of the Kentucky Bar Association. The rules require resubmission “only for substantive changes to a website previously submitted.”