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Legal aid funding bill
"When we passed our amendment in 2008, some of the
judges interpreted it as forbidding any of it going back to the
defendant."
MBA Access to Justice Section
member and Executive Director of the Massachusetts IOLTA Committee
Jayne Tyrrell, The Oregonian, Feb. 25
The Oregon legal community is debating whether to join 48 other
states in adopting rules which send residual funds from
class-action lawsuits to legal services for the poor or other
charities. Oregon currently sends the unclaimed money back to
defendants.
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Legal advertising for class action
suits
"Some certainly believe
that legal advertising has contributed to the downfall of our
reputation as lawyers … Our rules basically say that there must be
no false or misleading information. "
MBA Past President Kathy
O'Donnell of Kazarosian, Costello & O'Donnell, Palmer
Journal Register, Feb. 27
O'Donnell spoke to The Palmer Journal Register on the
topic of soliciting clients for health-related class action suits
through broadcast and online advertising. O'Donnell noted that the
Massachusetts Bar Association is working with the Supreme Judicial
Court's Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional
Conduct to develop new rules on this type of broad solicitation.
According to O'Donnell, a possible benefit of such advertisements
is the education of a mass audience on certain legal issues. "If
you take all the problems with hip replacements, some of these ads
did help inform people, and then there are others that reference
conditions that people may be too embarrassed to inquire about on
their own," she said.
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