Happy new year everyone!

During a trip to Albuquerque recently as I was driving along the highway I noticed a billboard promoting a law office. The sign said, among other things, that the firm was “powerful.” If one considers the impact this billboard may have in soliciting new clients, one has to consider whether there is anything misleading about this boast, and especially whether any potential client’s ability to consent to services is interfered with by the message of the billboard. It should be remembered that informed consent requires that a prospective client have knowledge of the services he/she is about to receive, together with the risks and benefits of services, and also that the client consent voluntarily to the services. When a law firm suggests to the public that it is “powerful,” it is actively misleading the public and prospective clients into believing that the services the firm offers are of a higher quality because of the firm’s supposed “power.” In reality, to suggest that one firm is more powerful than another simply because it advertises is ridiculous, and this type of “puffing” would seem to confuse and corrupt the information a prospective client needs to have in order to choose to receive the firm’s services knowledgeably and with full information concerning the nature of the firm’s services. What do you think? Please take a look at the section on informed consent on this website! You can access it through the main page, located at mentalhealthlaw.us.