South Florida Web Marketing Blog

Guidelines for Florida Lawyer and Law Firm Websites

Approved by The Standing Committee on Advertising
(January 1, 2010)

Effective July 1, 2010, lawyer and law firm websites must comply with the general lawyer advertising requirements set forth in Rule 4-7.2, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar. Although websites must comply with these requirements, they are not required to be filed with The Florida Bar for review. Rule 4-7.8(f), Rules Regulating The Florida Bar. The Florida Bar Board of Governors has adopted a policy that The Florida Bar will not accept voluntary filings of the entire contents of a lawyer or law firm website, although staff of the Ethics and Advertising Department will respond to specific questions involving a specific phrase or image to be included on a website. To make such an inquiry, please call the Ethics and Advertising Department at (800) 235-8619.

Click here for the Guidelines for Lawyer and Law Firm Websites

Additional information:

Lawyer Regulations

Lawyer advertising and business solicitation are strictly regulated by The Florida Bar. Lawyer advertising can provide crucial information about legal rights and increases access to lawyers for the public. Visit this link for more information:  Advertising Regulation

Guidelines for social networking sites

Guidelines for video sharing sites

Examples of complying and noncomplying ads

Quick Reference Checklist – Websites

Quick Reference Checklist – Direct E-mail Ads

Quick Reference Checklist – Other Internet Ads

The Handbook on Lawyer Advertising and SolicitationThe handbook has been updated to include the most recent amendments to the lawyer advertising rules, including changes to Rule 4-7.6 on computer accessed communications (effective January 1, 2010) and changes to other lawyer advertising rules from the 2008 Master Rules filing (effective February 1, 2010). The quick reference checklists have been updated to include these amendments as well. To obtain the full handbook, please download both the handbook
and the examples of complying and noncomplying ads.

The Florida Bar
651 E. Jefferson Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2300
(850) 561-5600

A message from Yahoo

Dear Advertiser,

On February 16, 2010, our advertiser Master Terms and Conditions and Program Terms will be modified to reflect recent changes to our products and services. We encourage you to review the new version at http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/advertising/mtcprogramterms/, as your continued use of Yahoo! advertising products on and after February 16, 2010 constitutes acceptance of the modified Master Terms and Conditions and Program Terms.

You may review the current Master Terms and Conditions and Program Terms, which will continue to be in effect through February 15, at http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/advertising/masterterms/masterterms-322.html. On February 16, 2010, the modified Master Terms and Conditions and Program Terms will be located at that URL.

The changes to the Master Terms and Conditions and Program Terms include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

Please note that certain Program Terms within the new Master Terms and Conditions will not apply to you if you have not enrolled in those Programs.

If you have any questions about this notice, please use the Support Request Form, which may be found at the upper-right corner of each page once you are logged in to your account at https://login12.marketingsolutions.yahoo.com/adui/signin/loadSignin.do.

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Yahoo!

From all of us to you – May this new year be a happy and prosperous one.

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
16 CFR Part 255
Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) is adopting revised Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (“the Guides”). The revised Guides include additional changes not incorporated in the proposed revisions published for public comment in November 2008. See 73 FR 72374 (Nov. 28, 2008).

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf

This has good and bad issues associated with it. So read carefully and examine their examples at the end of the document.

2009 – Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Nutrocker

2007 – Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve in Sarajevo

This is another lame attempt to get your Social Security and personal information. I am getting these e-mails way too often. The problem is that older population may buy into this type of e-mail because they may not realize it is a fake. If you have grand parents out there, be sure you take some time to call them and let them know this is FAKE and not respond to it.

The link in this e-mail will take you to:

http://statements.ssa.gov.reedasv.be/

Obviously the link takes to to somewhere other than  www.ssa.gov

You can always contact the Social Security Administration to let them know about this type of fake e-mail:

Report a Complaint

Your complaint, comment, or inquiry may help us spot a pattern of law violations requiring law enforcement action. It also may help us recognize and tell people about bigger trends affecting consumers. We do not resolve individual consumer disputes.

About a Company, an Organization, or a Business Practice

• Online: Use our secure complaint form.
• Phone: Call our toll-free helpline: 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357);
  TTY: 1-866-653-4261
• Mail: Write to:
  Federal Trade Commission
  Consumer Response Center
  600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
  Washington, DC 20580

About Identity Theft

• Online: Use our secure complaint form.
• Phone: Call our toll-free Identity Theft helpline: 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); TTY: 1-866-653-4261
• Mail: Write to:
  Federal Trade Commission
  Consumer Response Center
  600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
  Washington, DC 20580

About Spam & Phishing

• Email: spam@uce.gov
  Forward unsolicited commercial email (spam), including phishing messages, directly to the FTC at spam@uce.gov. These messages will be stored in a database law enforcement agencies use in their investigations.

I know I do not do any business with Silicon Grpahics, and I will never open an attachment to deal with a payment.

The attachment had a Trojan.Dropper – as per Symantecs

Be careful…

The e-mail contents:

We recorded a payment request from “Silicon Graphics” to enable the charge of $975.86 on your account.

The payment is pending for the moment.

If you made this transaction or if you just authorize this payment, please ignore or remove this email message. The transaction will be shown on your monthly statement as “Silicon Graphics”.

If you didn’t make this payment and would like to decline it, please download and install the transaction inspector module (attached to this letter).

Wow, I thought this was a weird e-mail from Verizon, but  the attachment was the give away. Beware – this has a virus attachment – downloader.Ergrun virus per Symantec. Verizon would never send an attachment in an e-mail.

Looks like you really have to be on your toes and keep an eye on what you are doing at the keyboard, especially if you list anything on the web to sell.

I got this e-mail from this Scammer today and I was somewhat concerned over the wording in the e-mail, which proved correct. The Craiglist response with a hyperlink took me to another web page asking me to login in with my Craigslist account. They are looking for usernames and passwords to scam people  – watch out.

Be careful out there.

Very cool website – amazing musical animations – Lot’s of fun

http://www.animusic.com/previews/animusic1.php