False Advertising of Legal Services; Good Faith Exemptions; Complaints; Violation of Cease and Desist Order

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Commerce and Trade
  4. Selling and Other Trade Practices
  5. Deceptive or Unfair Practices
  6. False Advertising
  7. False Advertising of Legal Services; Good Faith Exemptions; Complaints; Violation of Cease and Desist Order

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  1. No person, firm, corporation, or association or any employee thereof, with intent directly or indirectly to perform legal services or to do anything of any nature whatsoever to induce the public to enter into any obligation relating thereto, shall make or disseminate or cause to be made or disseminated before the public in this state, in any newspaper or other publication, radio, television, or advertising device or by public outcry or proclamation or any other manner or means whatever, any statement concerning such legal services or concerning any circumstances or matter of fact connected with the proposed performance thereof which is untrue, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading and which is known or which by the exercise of reasonable care should be known to be untrue, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading.
  2. Nothing in this Code section shall apply to any visual or sound broadcasting station or to any publisher or printer of a newspaper, magazine, or other form of printed advertising who broadcasts, telecasts, publishes, or prints such advertisement in good faith without knowledge of its false, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading character.
  3. The Attorney General is authorized and empowered, upon the receipt of a complaint or upon his or her own initiative, to investigate any advertising which might be in violation of subsection (a) of this Code section. If the Attorney General determines that any advertising is in violation of subsection (a) of this Code section, he or she is authorized and empowered, after providing the offender with reasonable notice and an opportunity for a hearing, to issue a public reprimand, to issue a cease and desist order against the offender, to report any such action to any board, agency, commission, association, or other entity governing or supervising the legal profession, and to publicize any such action in a medium or media likely to reach the recipients of the improper advertising. Any person against whom the Attorney General issues an adverse decision may, as his or her sole remedy in equity or at law, seek a restraining order against such adverse decision in the superior court.
  4. Any person who violates a cease and desist order issued pursuant to subsection (c) of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor in the county in which such person resides. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit any board, agency, commission, association, or other entity governing or supervising the legal profession from taking any lawful action against such person as a result of such improper practices. Each publication of an advertisement in violation of any such cease and desist order shall constitute a separate offense.

(Code 1981, §10-1-427, enacted by Ga. L. 1992, p. 1556, § 1; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1088, § 4/SB 148.)

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, in subsection (c), in the first sentence, substituted "Attorney General" for "Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs" and substituted "upon his or her" for "upon its", in the second sentence, substituted "Attorney General" for "office" and substituted "he or she is" for "it is", and, in the last sentence, substituted "Attorney General" for "office" and inserted "or her".

Cross references.

- Misrepresentation of notary services as deceptive trade practice, § 45-17-8.2.

Advertising by attorneys, Ga. State Bar Rules, Rule 4-102:7.2.

Law reviews.

- For annual survey on legal ethics, see 44 Mercer L. Rev. 281 (1992). For note on 1992 enactment of this Code section, see 9 G. St. U.L. Rev. 159 (1992).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Anti-SLAPP suit involving lawyer placed ad challenging nursing home standards.

- In a suit involving ads placed by a lawyer challenging nursing home standards, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the trial court overlooked certain preliminary questions as the court did not properly apply the required two step analysis under the anti-SLAPP statute, O.C.G.A. § 9-11-11.1, with respect to the plaintiffs' claims as there was no discussion or analysis of whether the plaintiffs had stated and substantiated a legally sufficient claim for the violations of the statutes. Wilkes & McHugh, P.A. v. LTC Consulting, L.P., 306 Ga. 252, 830 S.E.2d 119 (2019).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Propriety of radio and television attorney advertisements, 20 A.L.R.6th 385.

PART 5 LIMITED EDITION ART REPRODUCTIONS

10-1-430. Definitions.

As used in this part, the term:

  1. "Art dealer" means a person who is in the business of dealing exclusively or nonexclusively in fine art multiples, a person who by his occupation holds himself out as having knowledge or skill peculiar to fine art multiples or persons to whom that knowledge or skill may be attributed by his employment of an agent or other intermediary who by his occupation holds himself out as having that knowledge or skill, or an auctioneer who sells fine art multiples at public auction. The term shall not include consignors or principals of auctioneers unless such consignors or principals are otherwise specifically defined as art dealers by this paragraph.
  2. "Artist" means the person who created the image which is contained in or constitutes the master or who conceived of and approved the image which is contained in or constitutes the master.
  3. "Fine art multiple" or "multiple" means any print, positive or negative photograph, or similar art object produced in more than one copy. The term includes pages or sheets taken from books or magazines but shall not include books or magazines.
  4. "Limited edition" means fine art multiples produced from a master all of which are the same image and which bear numbers or other markings to denote the limited production thereof to a stated maximum number of multiples or which are otherwise held out as limited to a maximum number of multiples.
  5. "Master" means a printing plate, stone, block, screen, photographic negative, or other device which contains an image and is used to produce fine art objects in multiples.
  6. "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other entity.
  7. "Print" means a multiple produced by, but not limited to, engraving, etching, woodcutting, lithography, and serigraphy and a multiple produced or developed from photographic negatives.
  8. "Proofs" means multiples which are the same as and which are produced in a limited edition from the same master as the multiples but which, whether so designated or not, are set aside from and are in addition to the limited edition to which they relate.
  9. "Signed" means autographed by the artist's own hand, and not by mechanical means of reproduction, after the multiple is produced.
  10. "Written instrument" means a written or printed agreement, bill of sale, invoice, certificate of authenticity, catalogue, note, memorandum, or label describing a multiple which is to be sold, exchanged, or consigned by an art dealer.

(Code 1981, §10-1-430, enacted by Ga. L. 1986, p. 635, § 1.)


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