Indiana Lawyers Restricted from Posting Accident Case Results

Indiana Lawyers Still Restricted from Publishing Case Results for Accident Victims

             Visit a personal injury attorney website or read a publication from almost any other state and you will find a section usually lacking from materials from most Indiana lawyers who handle accident claims; a CASE RESULTS or SETTLEMENTS/VERDICT section in which the lawyers list fact situations from real-life claims they have handled, including the results.  Not so in Indiana, according to the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.
            On September 4, 2008 the Indiana Supreme Court imposed a public reprimand on Indianapolis personal injury attorneys Scott Benkie and Douglas Crawford for engaging in attorney misconduct in the advertisement of their legal services.  In a firm brochure entitled "We Work for You," Benkie and Crawford described several prior successful representations by listing the area of law, client names, amounts recovered, and other facts.  

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http://www.state.in.us/judiciary/opinions/pdf/09040801per.pdf

Expect more disciplinary actions in the future.  Despite the fact that Indiana lawyers who assist accident victims are prohibited from making self-laudatory statements, using any statement that is likely to create an unjustified expectation, and from making any statement that contains statistical data or any other information based on past performance or prediction of  future success, some lawyers even in Indiana, continue to ignore advertising rules by listing jury verdicts and settlement amounts they have recovered for injured clients.

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