Florida Bar Advertising Rules: What to File, and When

The Florida Bar advertising rules sit in Subchapter 4-7 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar; this page walks through the text in effect October 1, 2026.

For the model rules every state version starts from, read lawyer advertising rules; Florida lawyers answer to Florida's text.

Which lawyers and media the rules cover

Rule 4-7.11 applies the subchapter to every print and electronic medium, websites included, and to any lawyer who advertises legal services in Florida or targets Florida residents, admitted there or not.

National-media ads by Florida Bar members admitted elsewhere are outside it when they plainly say "cases not accepted in Florida".

Filing and review: 20 days, $150, and a 15-day window

The filing rules were amended May 15, 2025, effective July 14, 2025 (SC2025-0018), touching both Rule 4-7.19 and the Rule 4-7.20 exemptions.

Unless an exemption applies, Rule 4-7.19(a) requires each ad to be filed at least 20 days before first use; if the Bar sends no communication within 15 days of a complete filing, the lawyer is not subject to discipline for that ad unless the Bar later finds noncompliance.

The Bar's Handbook on Lawyer Advertising and Solicitation, approved December 10, 2025, sets $150 per ad on time and $250 if late, and any change down to wording or color scheme, other than one made to fix a noncompliance notice, makes a new ad with a new fee.

Review checks facial compliance only, and a notice of compliance binds the Bar unless the ad contains a misrepresentation not apparent on its face (Rules 4-7.19(e) and (f)).

Websites skip filing but stay subject to Rules 4-7.11 through 4-7.17.

What every ad must say

Rule 4-7.12(a) and (b), amended effective August 21, 2023 (SC22-1294), require every ad to name a responsible lawyer or law firm and give the city, town or county of a bona fide office.

If cases will be referred out, the ad says so; the comment's sample wording is "Your case may be referred to another lawyer".

Required statements appear in every language the ad uses and must be clear and conspicuous; a satellite or "available by appointment" location can be mentioned only when true.

Results, testimonials and predictions under Rule 4-7.13

Florida's Rule 4-7.13, effective in its current form August 21, 2023, is the state's version of the false-or-misleading standard in ABA Model Rule 7.1.

Rule 4-7.13(b)(1) prohibits ads a prospective client could reasonably read as predicting or guaranteeing a result, and (b)(3) prohibits unverifiable characterizations of skill such as "the best"; the comment pairs "I will get you acquitted" with "I will pursue an acquittal" as the line between the two.

Past results are deceptive under Rule 4-7.13(b)(2) unless objectively verifiable, and the comment requires the affected client's informed consent even for a public-record result.

The cross-state version of that test is in past results advertising rules.

Under Rule 4-7.13(b)(9), a testimonial is deceptive if any of six things is true: the person is unqualified to evaluate the matter, it is not their actual experience, it is not typical of what the firm's clients experience, the lawyer wrote it, the person got something of value for it, or it lacks the disclaimer that the prospective client may not obtain the same or similar results.

The comment prescribes no wording, and review incentives are a case-by-case question.

Certification, awards and advertised fees under Rule 4-7.14

"Board certified" is permitted only under the Florida Certification Plan, an ABA- or Florida Bar-accredited organization, or a comparable state bar program, with the area and certifier named (Rule 4-7.14(a)(4)).

"Specialist" and "expert" claims require certification or objective verification; certification belongs to individual lawyers, so an ad may not say a law firm is certified, and a firm claiming specialization must add a disclaimer when not all its lawyers qualify (Rule 4-7.14(a)(5) and (6)).

The comment allows bona fide awards and ratings to be listed by actual name and date, and treats skill-based recognition as potentially misleading unless the selecting entity uses objective, uniformly applied criteria.

Fee ads must disclose all fees and expenses the client may owe, and advertised fees must be honored for at least 90 days, or 1 year in annual directories (Rule 4-7.14(a)(7)).

Solicitation: the 30-day mail blackout and the live-contact ban

Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(A), in the text amended effective May 2, 2022 and August 21, 2023, bars written solicitation about personal injury, wrongful death or an accident or disaster unless the event happened more than 30 days before the mailing, counted to the mailing.

The Supreme Court upheld a rule of this shape in Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc., 515 U.S. 618 (1995), applying intermediate scrutiny to the 30-day mail bar on the commercial-speech foundation of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977).

Rule 4-7.18(a) bars in-person, telephone and real-time video solicitation of people with no family or prior professional relationship to the lawyer, when pecuniary gain is a significant motive.

ABA Formal Opinion 501, footnote 1 (April 13, 2022), cites Florida's Rule 4-7.18(a) among states that have not adopted the Model Rule's narrower definition; Florida's rule requires no knowledge that the person needs legal services.

The model version of the ban is in ABA Rule 7.3.

Written solicitation is also barred when the person is represented, has declined such communications, or their physical, emotional or mental state makes reasonable judgment unlikely (Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)).

Targeted solicitations carry marking rules under Rule 4-7.18(b)(2): the piece is marked "advertisement", an email subject line begins with "Advertisement", an event-prompted piece says how the lawyer got the information, and an enclosed contract is marked "SAMPLE" and "DO NOT SIGN".

Each communication also states the lawyer's background and experience, must not resemble a legal pleading, and goes in an envelope that does not reveal the recipient's legal problem; the handbook extends the marking to targeted texts and social messages.

Lead generators and competitors' names

Rule 4-7.22 calls lead generators, matching services, directories and pooled-advertising programs "qualifying providers", workable only when 12 conditions hold, among them no fee sharing unless it is a Bar-approved referral service and reporting to the Bar within 15 days of starting or stopping.

A lawyer takes on responsibility for a provider's noncompliance by skipping due diligence or staying on more than 30 days after the Bar's notice; the definition reaches "providing tips or leads".

How lead payments work under the model rules is in lead generation ethics for lawyers.

On search terms, the comment to Rule 4-7.13 says it is impermissible to bid on another lawyer's or firm's name with an ad that does not clearly show it is for a different firm, and not misleading when the ad's first displayed text is the advertising lawyer's or firm's name.

Other states write their own keyword-bidding rules, so this comment covers Florida only.

Before you file or publish, confirm how a rule applies to your firm with The Florida Bar's ethics counsel or an ethics lawyer; this page describes the October 1, 2026 text, not advice on a specific ad.

Frequently asked questions