Safe to Be Super Again

It's Safe to be a Super Lawyer again!

It's safe to be a Super Lawyer again.  You may remember that back in 2006 New Jersey banned lawyers from advertising themselves as "Super Lawyers" though voted as such through the good auspices of our friends at Law & Politics. New Jersey's Committee on Attorney Advertsing issued its Opinoin 39 in 2006 banning the use of designations like "Super Lawyer" and "Best Lawyers in America" as potentially misleading.  The decision was challenged by Law &I Politics among others.  The New Jersey Supreme Court vacated adn remanded Opinion 29 on December 17, 2008 (The NJ SCt decision:  A-30-08 Opinion 39)

The Court held, perhaps not unexpectedly given the line of cases from Bates v. Arizona that lawyer advertising is Commercial Speech protected by the First Amendment.  The Court adopted a special master's finding that such advertising was truthful and fact based.  Banning such truthful and fact based advertising was likely an overly broad restriction of Commercial Speech.  Though Opinoin 39 was vacated, the issue was remanded to the Committee on Attorney Advertising for further consideration in light of the identified Constitutional issues.  (The full decision:  A-30-08 Opinion 39)

Reporting on the decision:

NJ.com

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