Texas law firm marketing, logged for State Bar review and timed to the barratry clock

Most of your ads need a copy sent to the State Bar, with a fee. Knowing which ones skip that step saves money and keeps you clear of fines.

The State Bar of Texas does not license a firm's marketing. It reviews it. The disciplinary rules send most lawyer ads to the Bar's Advertising Review Committee. Filings now go through a portal on each lawyer's My Bar Page. The State Bar's ad review page puts the application fee at $100.

Less has to be filed than most firms assume. The Bar's filing exemption rule leaves out four kinds of marketing:

• Most of the website. Every page except the homepage is exempt. Even the homepage is exempt when it holds only exempt information.
• Informational posts. Social posts that are mainly informational, educational or for entertainment are exempt, as long as they do not expressly offer legal services.
• Basic-facts ads. An ad limited to the basics the rule lists stays home. Those include names, addresses and practice areas. They also include bar admissions, foreign languages, TBLS certification and the fee for a first consultation.
• Newsletters to people you know. That means ones sent only to clients, former clients, other lawyers or people who asked for them.

Everything else gets filed, from a billboard to a boosted reel to a mailer. You send a copy, an application and the fee no later than 10 days after it first runs. If you would rather know first, submit at least 30 days before launch. A finding of compliance on that early filing binds in the lawyer's favor, under the Bar's ad filing rule. A firm mailing one form letter to many people files a sample of the letter and its envelope, not every copy.

Changing an approved ad is what costs money. A substantive change needs a new application and a new fee. The State Bar also says an unfiled ad that is not exempt can draw a $250 fine plus the $100 review fee. So we write ad variants in sets and record which version ran where and when. Then we test inside an approved script instead of rewriting the spot every week.

Every ad, filed or exempt, names a lawyer who answers for its content. It also says where that lawyer mainly practices, under the Bar's lawyer ad rule. Actors need care too. An actor playing the lawyer is misleading if viewers are likely to think the actor is the lawyer. Whether a "dramatization" label fixes that depends on how clear and conspicuous the label is.

This is our reading of the published rules, not legal advice. Confirm with counsel or the Bar's ad review staff.

If you advertise in Spanish, every required disclaimer goes in Spanish too. A Spanish ad is a second ad with its own disclaimers, not a translation tucked under the English one.

Any statement or disclaimer the rules require must appear in each language the ad uses. It must also be plain enough for an ordinary person, under the Bar's rule on lawyer communications. Saying "se habla español" does not trigger that on its own. Running the spot in Spanish does.

For a Spanish campaign, three lines move into Spanish as well:

• Expenses. The line on who pays expenses in a contingency offer.
• Reduced verdicts. The amount the client actually received, wherever a reduced verdict is advertised.
• Certification. The TBLS name beside "Board Certified".

Radio, TV and internet ads carry one more duty. A spoken disclaimer must be easy to understand. A written one must stay on screen long enough to read.

Television has a law of its own. The Texas TV lawyer ad law passed as SB 1189 and has been in force since September 1, 2019. It applies only to TV ads for legal services.

Its disclosure section requires three things, spoken and on screen:

• The opening line. "This is a paid advertisement for legal services." comes at the very start.
• The sponsor. The spot says who is paying for the ad.
• Who takes the case. It names the lawyer or firm that will handle the cases. If the sponsor cannot practice law, it says how callers get referred.

The same law bans three tricks. A spot may not pose as a "medical alert", "drug alert" or "public service announcement". It may not show a government agency's logo so the agency seems to stand behind it. And it may not call a product "recalled" when no agency recall exists. A spot looking for prescription drug injuries adds "Do not stop taking a prescribed medication without first consulting a physician."

The text we read does not say whether those lines must also be spoken in Spanish on a Spanish-language station. So we treat it as a question for counsel and script both languages.

When someone contacts your firm first, you can answer fast. A web form, a missed call or a chat is their request, so the reply can go out the same day.

The Bar's rules bar live or interactive contact with people who have not sought the lawyer out. But the comments to its solicitation rule treat an answer to someone's own request for information as no solicitation at all. An online search counts as that kind of request. The reply goes to the number or address the person gave.

In our October 2026 check of 43 Texas injury firm sites, we found none that lets a visitor pick a consultation time online. So the first reply is the place to offer one.

Reaching past the request changes the rules. A text or email campaign to people who never asked is a solicitation. It must be plainly marked as an advertisement. The rule's comments say that is met when "ADVERTISEMENT", in capitals, is the first word of the text or the email subject line. The campaign also goes through the Bar's filing portal, the same as a billboard. After an accident, it waits for day 31.

An assistant that answers after hours speaks for the firm, so the same honesty rules apply to it. The scripts we write never let it claim to be a lawyer or put a value on a case. Some laws apply to every kind of business: consent wording, call recording and the Texas texting and AI disclosure laws. They are in our texting and call recording guide.

Some sequences sit between a reply and a campaign. Your ethics lawyer should make that call before one runs.

Texas spells out what an ad may say about fees, results and gifts. You can check your ads against each point below, line by line.

• Advertised prices stick. If you advertise a fee or fee range for a named service, you must honor it while the ad is reasonably expected to bring in clients. The ad itself can name a shorter period. Unless it promised longer, you are not held to it more than a year after publication, under the Bar's lawyer ad rule. So a flat-fee will or uncontested divorce offer belongs in a dated campaign, not on a page nobody updates.
• Contingency fees in writing. A contingent fee contract must be written and signed by both the attorney and the client, under Texas's contingent fee law. So an intake flow that ends in e-signature needs the lawyer's signature step too.
• Who pays expenses. An ad that mentions contingency says whether the client pays expenses, under the same ad rule.
• Results with the real number. Some advertised verdicts are later reduced, reversed or never collected, and some cases settle for less. A lawyer who knows that must state what the client actually received, with equal or greater prominence. That comes from the Bar's rule on lawyer communications and its comments. A lawyer may claim a result only after playing a substantial role, such as lead counsel.
• No gifts to win the case. A firm may not give a prospective client anything of value to get hired. Litigation expenses and the other financial help the rules allow are exceptions. So is ordinary hospitality of nominal value. A gas card for coming in to sign is out. Thank-you gifts to people who refer stay token and are never promised ahead of time.
• Paying an agency is allowed. A lawyer may pay reasonable fees for advertising and public relations work. Paying a nonlawyer for each client they send is not.

Have ethics counsel read any referral or co-counsel arrangement before it is signed.