Better Call Saul –

Limits of

Attorney advertising.

12. February 2015

from

Clemens Pfitzer

The spin-off series “Better Call Saul” was recently launched. The hero of the series is Saul, a sleazy lawyer who will do anything for his clients and doesn’t hide it in his advertising. Even though Saul is a fictional character, aggressive advertising for lawyers is widespread in the USA. But would it work in this country too?

Lawyer advertising like Better Call Saul

“Better Call Saul” is a spin-off of the hit series“Breaking Bad” in which Saul Goodman has to save his clients Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from the consequences of their crystal meth business, usually using less legal methods. Now Saul appears as the main character in his own prequel and advertises on his website with “Welcome Lawbreakers!” (“Welcome Lawbreakers!”) and such vivid phrases as “I can prove that baby’s not yours!” (“I can prove that baby’s not yours!”).

Now Saul is a fictional character and the advertising is also somewhat drastic. In fact, lawyer advertising in the USA is somewhat borderline for German tastes. It is often less about factual information and more about sensational advertising and sensationalism, as many examples on the Internet show.

Would something like this also be allowed in Germany?

In the past, advertising by lawyers was largely prohibited in Germany. Although this ban no longer exists, there are still rules for advertising by lawyers. The Federal Lawyers’ Act (BRAO) states: “Advertising is only permitted for attorneys if it provides factual information about their professional activities in terms of form and content and is not aimed at obtaining an order in an individual case.”

Thus, the Federal Court of Justice(judgment of 27.10.2014 – AnwZ (Brfg) 67/13) ruled that advertising by a fellow lawyer on coffee cups was inadmissible. The lawyer had distributed cups with three motifs for advertising purposes.

The first print contained a photographic image crossed out with diagonal red lines. It showed a woman hitting a girl lying on her knees, obviously screaming, on her bare buttocks with an object. Next to the picture was the statement:

Corporal punishment is prohibited (§ 1631 paragraph II BGB)

The second motif depicted a smoking man hitting an adult woman lying on her knees with an object on her exposed buttocks. Next to it was the text:

Have you been the victim of a crime?

The third imprint consisted of a photographic image of a young woman holding the muzzle of a firearm under her chin, recognizably out of desperation, and the adjacent text line

Don’t despair, ask [lawyer’s name].

The federal judges in Karlsruhe judged this advertising to be inadmissible shock advertising, which is intended to attract the viewer’s attention through its lurid and sexualizing design and in which the informational value is hardly or no longer recognizable.

In its ruling, the Federal Court of Justice clarifies once again that attorneys are not allowed to use all advertising methods that would (still) be permitted in the advertising sector in general. The advertising regulations of lawyers’ professional law serve the purpose of ensuring the independence of the attorney as an organ of the administration of justice. Advertising that focuses on advertising and has nothing to do with thelawyer‘s actual service or the relationship of trust within the scope of a mandate is incompatible with this.