 An American personal injury lawyer is facing court over allegations that his television advertisements are misleading to those viewing them.
Attorney Joel Bieber hotly denies the accusations and is appealing to a federal judge to have the disciplinary hearing stopped as he feels that he has not done anything wrong.
The advert in question concerns personal injury claims over accidents that happened at work. A disciplinary commission are seeking to have Mr Bieber reprimanded as they claim that the advert makes misleading promises that Mr Bieber will be able protect jobs.
In the advert Mr Bieber is seen saying “Its not your fault that you were hurt on the job. But I know you're afraid to file a job injury claim. You're afraid your boss won't believe you're really hurt or worse, that you'll be fired. We'll protect you against these threats and these accusations and work to protect your job.”
The case came to court after an annoymous client of Mr Bieber made an official complaint about the advertisement as he felt that he did not get the service he had been led to expect from the advert when he hired Mr Bieber.
A further complaint was also heard from another anonymous letter writer, this time from a man claiming to be a fellow lawyer who was not impressed when he saw Mr Bieber's adverts as he could immediately see that Mr Bieber was promising to deliver something which he could not guarantee.
The anonymous complainant states in a September 2006 letter to the South Caroline Commission on Lawyer Conduct that in South Carolina, a lawyer has "very limited legal means to punish an employer for firing someone who is injured and certainly Mr. Bieber cannot protect the employee's job."
The complainant argues in the letter that Bieber is "clearly creating the unjustified expectation that if an injured worker calls him he won't lose his job."
It is due to this complaint that the South Caroline Commission on Lawyer Conduct has began an investigation into the way in which Mr Bieber advertises in 2006.
The South Caroline Commission on Lawyer Conduct is made up of a panel of 44 lawyers and two members of the public. Between them they make it their business to investigate complaints made against lawyers in the area.
Despite being told by the South Caroline Commission on Lawyer Conduct that they will proceed with a full disciplinary hearing and being ordered that he must voluntarily submit to a public reprimand, Mr Bieber denies any wrongdoing.
Bieber said that “nothing in my ad is false or misleading and the commission's actions aim to suppress my right to free speech and will discourage other attorneys from advertising.”
He added that he was “not going to simply accept a public reprimand when I believe I've done nothing wrong."
"You would think there wouldn't be a whole lot of consideration given to something where someone filed something and didn't have enough courage to sign their name to it,” he said.
When the advert was shown to a group of 30 volunteers by a leading market research company, the overwhelming feeling was that Mr Bieber's claims were indeed misleading. Updated on 30/06/2008
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