One of the largest plaintiff’s firms in the country, Morgan & Morgan, spent over $15 million on advertisements in 2023 in New Jersey alone, according to a March 21 report released by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA).
Morgan & Morgan’s spending on advertisements resulted in approximately 106,437 ads that were aired in New Jersey in 2023, according to the report. Plaintiffs' attorneys use these ads to attract more clients to win larger settlements and payouts. ATRA said in the report that these ads can sometimes mislead consumers, especially when they concern pharmaceuticals or medical devices. Consumers may stop taking medication without consulting their healthcare providers after seeing an ad about the medication, which has led to adverse and fatal health effects.
In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent letters to seven legal practitioners expressing that some television advertisements attempting to solicit clients for class action lawsuits included deceptive or misleading information about pharmaceuticals, according to a press release. In the letters, the FTC said some of these lawsuit ads may misrepresent risks linked to medications and leave viewers with the false impression that their medication has been recalled. In some cases, lawsuit advertisements begin with "sensational warnings or alerts" that may deceive viewers into believing the ad is a government-sanctioned medical alert.
Dr. Ilana Kutinsky testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee about her experience with legal ads’ impact on her patients, according to a transcript of the hearing. Kutinsky said she has had patients who discontinue taking a prescription after they were "frightened" by a legal ad. "Irresponsible attorney advertising undermines the patient-physician relationship and completely disregards evidence-based medical practices and recommendations from the FDA," she said. She added one of her patients was an elderly woman with atrial fibrillation, putting her at high risk of a stroke. To reduce this risk, Kutinsky recommended that the patient begin taking a blood thinner. After taking it for three years, the patient received a flier from an attorney saying that her blood thinner medication could cause internal bleeding. The patient stopped taking the medication; two weeks later she suffered a stroke, fell into a coma, and died. "This is just one example of something that I experience on a constant basis," Kutinsky said.
Morgan & Morgan is a national personal injury law firm with more than 1,000 attorneys in offices throughout the country, according to its website. Their practice areas include car and truck accidents, medical malpractice, and wrongful deaths.
