High Court Upholds State Ban on Testimony Ads for Lawyers
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court let stand a California rule that virtually bans all lawyer advertisements featuring testimonials or client endorsements.
Six months after the high court said it would use a challenge to the California rule to issue a decision that would bind all the states, the justices dismissed the case today.
The court’s one-sentence opinion said a Los Angeles lawyer’s appeal was being dropped “for want of a properly presented federal question.”
Mark H. Oring of Los Angeles was reprimanded by the California Bar Assn. for a radio commercial in which a client who had been involved in an auto accident praised Oring and his partner.
Oring said the state rule presuming that testimonials are deceptive violates his free-speech rights. The California Supreme Court rejected Oring’s challenge to the rule in 1987, and today’s action by the U.S. high court leaves the state rule undisturbed.
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