Nigerian Legal System Must Update Its Rules Forbidding Solicitation of Clients

Comment: “The ethical rules governing Legal practice forbid open advertisements…” (in Nigeria)

My Response: “The ethical rules governing Legal practice forbid open advertisements ” – American system does that all the time. They advertise everywhere – TVs, billboards, radios, etc. Does it mean it is not ethical? What is wrong advertising for the “wronged” to come out to get help. I do not get the “ethical issue” here. “I am a lawyer, I sue companies which make bad medical equipment. If you have been a victim of ABC product, call me. I will get help for you”. What is unethical about this?

Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ogbuka, Esq, can you help? I do think that the Nigerian legal system must allow lawyers/law firms to advertise for class action and recruit clients so that we can put pressure on the many issues in the nation. In America, everyone fears trial lawyers but those trial lawyers will not work without the ability to use Facebook, TVs, etc to recruit victims which strengthen their cases. In Nigeria, I am told that recruitment is illegal and unethical…WHY?

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: The Rules of Professional conduct for legal practitioners in Nigeria does not prohibit advertising.

What the Rules forbid is solicitation of clients. Advertising is allowed so far it in accordance within the bounds provided by the Rules, for example publishing thought leadership materials, appearing on TV or Radio programs etc.

I however, align myself with the School of thought that the Rules of Professional Conduct should be amended to reflect the current realities in the digital ewe now live in to allow lawyers engage in some form of regulated direct advertising.

My Response: “What the Rules forbid is solicitation of clients.” The American legal system allows that. Do you have any professional opinion on how that diminishes the US legal system?

This is the Jumia class action ad and solicitation for client by Rosen law “To join the Jumia class action, go http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-1569.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.” I am just curious why this makes law look bad to be illegal in Nigeria.

Comment 1b: Prof. I’d agree that solicitation hasn’t diminished the American system hence the calls for reforms which I am largely in support of.

However, my learned colleagues aren’t doing enough within the allowed bounds of the rules to build effective visibility.

Comment 2: What is written, is written. Drops mic

My Response: Not for the new generation. Many badly written things have been revised. We cannot use an ordinance for alchemy age to run a knowledge age. We sap ourselves of efficiency and productivity. I am not a lawyer but if I have to code a model on the capacity to win a case, the number of litigants will be an input variable.

If 1000 people are suing “ABCD Ltd” for a bad drug which caused harm to their babies over just 1 person, my weighing factor will vary. But the ability to recruit those 1000 should not be abstracted by old ordinance.

Comment 3: Ndubuisi Ekekwe Personally, i believe such rules are outdated for the Digital age we currently live in, but laws don’t care about personal feelings.

The Nigerian Legal System is still a derivative of the English Common Law system, which treated the Legal Profession as a sober closed society with its own ethics, the benchmark being fundamental mutual respect between all lawyers, including those in pupilage.

These ethics, backed up by principles such as “The Cab Rank Rule”(In Pidgin, “All  taxi be the same, if one no gree, enter the next one”), sought to create a set of advertising rules that would maintain equality and fairness among lawyers while maintaining the dignity of the lawyer and the legal profession.

As a result, TV , Billboard, and Radio advertisements were forbidden,as well as things like Trial publicity (granting interviews on cases still being determined by court as a way of self-promotion) and what is called “unfair advertisement”(“ABC lawfirm is the foremost leading Commercial lawfirm in Nigeria” or “Having lengthy delays in Court? Change your lawyer and port to XYZ lawfirm, where you have REAL lawyers!”) , touting, running a legal practice as a limited liability company, newspaper advertisements, champerty & maintenance (lawyers instigating and commencing non-criminal litigation with their own funds) and then ambulance chasing (going round looking for cases and influencing aggrieved parties to sue  through you or hire you with talk like “That man cheated you, you should sue o, i can run it for you!”, a lawyer’s version of clout-chasing).?

All these things greatly reduced allowed advertising to the following:-

• Sharing your complimentary cards.

• Public informative interviews, articles on new or relatively unknown aspects of law.

• Letters of Introduction/Proposal letters.

• Notifying your NBA branch members of your practice.

• Referrals.

The rules also totally cut off in-house counsel from private practice (i will be posting an article on Tekedia.com about this).

The ethical rules didn’t foresee online Lawfirms, virtual law offices or online marketing which is usually organic in nature.

The law only allows for newspaper advertisements from non-lawyer groups like people with similar causes in the form of representative suits (class action suits in the US) in matters of Land disputes, Consumer Rights actions, and Labour disputes or Community-based suits in Oil spillage and environmental suits.

Most Common Law jurisdictions have realized the dynamic nature of Legal developments and have amended their rules on advertising for lawyers . This isn’t exactly the case in Nigeria, with the last undisputed amended set of ethical rules for lawyers being carried out in 2007.

So yes, we’re still kinda under strict rules here.?

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