Geeklawyer pointed to a post on the IP Counsel Blog, which reports that the Florida Bar Association may start monitoring the content of law blogs used to lure potential clients.

From the Florida Bar’s Newsletter:

Just as The Florida Bar grapples with how best to deal with lawyer Web sites as a form of lawyer advertising (an Internet phenomenon that first surfaced about a dozen years ago and is now embraced by 100 percent of firms in Florida with more than 20 attorneys, according to the 2004 Economics & Law Office Management Survey) fresh questions arise about whether the Bar should regulate blawgs, the relatively new kid on the cyberspace block, too. Some exist to troll for business, while others exude almost a public-service tone.

“The Standing Committee on Advertising has not addressed this issue, because it is a relatively new phenomenon,� said Bar Ethics Counsel Elizabeth Tarbert.

“My position is that whether the Bar would regulate depends on the content of the blog. If the blog is purely political, the Bar would not. If the blog is purely information and not being used as an opportunity for the lawyer to obtain clients or provide info on the lawyer’s legal services, the Bar would not regulate unless there was something generally false, deceptive, or misleading in the blog.

“If, on the other hand, the blog is used as an opportunity for the lawyer to obtain clients or provide info on the lawyer’s legal services, the blog would have to comply with the lawyer advertising rules,� Tarbert said.

So this seems to be a matter of intent. But how does one judge the intent of a lawyer or law firm producing a blawg? How could one have a blawg that is not “used as an opportunity for the lawyer to obtain clients”? Does simply having an email address to contact the attorney constitute such an opportunity?

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