Louisiana law firm marketing filed with the bar before the first ad runs

Most Louisiana law firm ads have to reach the state bar no later than the day they first run. Build the filing date into every launch, because the bar counts the day it receives the package, not the day you send it.

The LSBA's filing page sets the fee. The LSBA charges $175 for a filing made before or on the day of first use. File after the ad is out and the LSBA charges $275. That $100 difference at the LSBA buys nothing.

"Filed" has a strict meaning here. The LSBA's lawyer advertising page says an ad counts as filed only once the bar has received it and clocked it in. Filings sent by email or fax are not accepted. A package that lands the day after a billboard goes up was filed late.

Big campaigns have a calmer route. Under the advertising rules, a firm can file at least 30 days before first use and ask for an advisory opinion. If the committee finds the ad compliant, that early filing counts as the regular one. If it sends nothing in writing within 30 days of receiving a filing, the ad is treated as approved.

TV is easier to plan than it looks. The filing page says the committee will take storyboards and a script for an advance opinion. The finished spot still goes in before it airs, and it must not differ in substance from what was reviewed.

Two habits save trouble later. The rules ask firms to keep a copy of every ad for five years after its last use, with a record of when and where it ran. They also require a new filing when a change of circumstances could make an approved ad misleading. In our reading, a named lawyer leaving the firm is the usual case. This is a marketing reading of the rules and not legal advice, so confirm with counsel.

A Louisiana hurricane brings claims, and it also brings rules on how a firm may reach the people who have them. The first rule is a wait.

Under Louisiana's solicitation rule, a firm may not write to someone about an accident or disaster that touched them or a relative until more than 30 days have gone by. Email counts as writing. A storm on September 11 rules out targeted mail until the middle of October.

Storms are a fixed part of the Louisiana year. Hurricane season starts June 1 and ends November 30, in the National Hurricane Center's records. September 10 is its peak, and the busiest stretch falls between the middle of August and the middle of October.

The damage reaches the courts for years. The NHC's report on Hurricane Laura puts the storm's 2020 damage in Louisiana at $17.5 billion. More recently, Hurricane Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish on September 11, 2024.

When the mail does go out, the rules for written solicitations set its format:

• The label. "ADVERTISEMENT" goes at the top of each page and in the lower left corner of the envelope, in type as large as the largest on the page.
• Ordinary mail. No certified or registered mail, and nothing that looks like a court notice or a contract.
• How you found them. A letter prompted by a specific event says how the firm learned about it.
• A plain envelope. The outside never reveals the person's legal problem.
• Email subject lines. An unsolicited email states "LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT" in its subject line.

Calls are off the table. The same rules bar soliciting a stranger in person or by a live phone call when the fee is a real motive. A firm may not let staff or agents make those calls for it either, so a storm-week call center is out.

Roofers and restorers are not a way around this. Louisiana's contractor claim law says a contractor may not be paid for pointing a homeowner to a law firm. It may not split a lawyer's fee or make signing with a lawyer a condition of the job. Our Louisiana restoration page covers the contractor's side.

The bar's side matches. The advertising rules bar a lawyer from giving anything of value for a recommendation. Paying for advertising is allowed, and so are the usual charges of a not-for-profit lawyer referral service that meets the rule's conditions.

Louisiana's rules get specific about what an ad shows and says. Anything staged, translated, paid for or nicknamed has to be labeled or left out.

The advertising rules cover these cases:

• Ads in Spanish or any other language. Every required statement appears in each language the ad uses. The filing also needs an accurate English translation.
• Actors and reenactments. A non-client playing a client, or a staged scene, needs a disclaimer. A non-lawyer may never play a lawyer.
• Paid endorsements. A paid testimonial has to say it was paid.
• TV and radio voices. Lawyers from outside the firm may not speak for it.
• Nicknames and mottos. A name or slogan that implies the firm gets results is out. A trade name is allowed only if it is the name on the letterhead, office sign and fee contracts.
• "Certified." A lawyer may say "specialist" if it is not misleading. "Certified" or "board certified" needs the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization or another qualifying body, named in the ad.
• Fee lines. An ad that mentions fees, including no fee without a recovery, must say whether the client pays costs on top. An advertised fee has to be honored for at least 90 days.

Disclaimers have to be readable. The same rules want them clear, next to the claim they qualify, and on screen long enough to read. A spoken one has to be plainly audible. Intake and Local Services Ads work the same in every state, so they live on our main page for law firms.