TCPA Rules for Law Firms: Texting Consent, Opt-Outs

The TCPA rules for law firms come down to three questions: did the prospective client consent, can they take it back, and what does your state bar say about the same message?

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227) and the FCC's rules at 47 CFR 64.1200 govern automated calls and texts, law firm or otherwise.

It is the compliance companion to our guide to law firm text message marketing, which covers the channel itself; here the focus is consent, opt-outs, penalties and solicitation, as of October 2026.

What law firm texting consent requires under the TCPA

Under current 47 CFR 64.1200 (eCFR text as of October 1, 2026), telemarketing robocalls and robotexts made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice require the recipient's prior express written consent.

The rule defines that consent as a signed written agreement, and electronic signatures qualify, so documented agreement comes before the first marketing text.

The FCC's 2023 order would also have required consent forms to name one seller at a time; the 11th Circuit vacated that rule on January 24, 2025 (Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC) as conflicting with the statute's ordinary meaning of prior express consent.

The eCFR text current as of October 1, 2026 contains no one-seller-at-a-time language.

The FCC could revisit the standard on remand and state telephone-solicitation laws can be stricter, so the federal rule is a floor for law firm texting consent, not the whole analysis.

Opt-outs, calling hours and the Do-Not-Call registry

Consent is not permanent: under 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(10) (eCFR as of October 1, 2026), a person can revoke it by any reasonable means.

Replies like stop, quit or cancel count automatically, a sender cannot require one opt-out method, and revocations must be honored within a reasonable time not exceeding ten business days.

One piece is in flux: an FCC order released January 6, 2026 (DA 26-12) extended the waiver of the revoke-all provision, which would make one opt-out apply to future messages on unrelated matters, to January 31, 2027.

The FCC also moved in September 2026 to revise the revocation rules (fact sheet dated September 9, 2026), with the final text and effective date pending as of this writing, so the duties above still control.

On timing and lists, 47 CFR 64.1200(c) bars telephone solicitations to residential subscribers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient's local time and to numbers on the national Do-Not-Call registry, subject to safe harbors.

Telephone solicitation is a defined term with exceptions (contact the person invited or permitted, established business relationships), and registry listings last until cancelled or removed.

Can lawyers text potential clients? The solicitation layer

The TCPA answers whether the prospect consented; whether the message is proper solicitation is a separate question that professional conduct rules govern.

ABA Model Rule 7.3 defines solicitation as a lawyer-initiated communication to a specific person known to need legal services, and its comments say a response to a request for information is not solicitation.

The same comments put text messages and other written communications that recipients can easily disregard outside live person-to-person contact, so a text is not the contact Model Rule 7.3(b) bars when a significant motive is pecuniary gain.

Model Rules bind no one until a state adopts them, so your state's version of Rule 7.3 controls.

Rule 7.3(c) still applies to every channel: it bars soliciting anyone who has said they do not want to be solicited and bars coercion, duress or harassment, and Comment [6] says live contact with people especially vulnerable to coercion, such as the elderly, is ordinarily not appropriate.

ABA Formal Opinion 501 (April 13, 2022) notes that some states have not adopted the Model Rule's narrower definition.

Texas Rule 7.03 (rules effective July 1, 2021) bars soliciting a non-client in person or through regulated telephone, social media or other electronically interactive contact, and treats a targeted text whose first word is ADVERTISEMENT as properly marked.

Florida's rules (as in effect October 1, 2026) require direct written solicitations to be marked advertisement, start email subject lines with Advertisement, and the Bar's handbook applies the first-word requirement to targeted text message communications.

For the full solicitation framework, the exceptions and the state variations, see ABA Model Rule 7.3 and solicitation.

TCPA consent in law firm marketing: what a violation costs

The TCPA gives recipients a private right of action for actual loss or $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and courts may triple that for willful or knowing violations (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)).

Violations count individually, so the parts a firm controls are its consent records and opt-out handling.

TCPA cases filed in US district courts rose 78% in fiscal year 2025 to 2,367, according to the US Courts Judicial Business 2025 report, which gives no cause for the increase.

A pre-send review for a law firm texting program

A text replying to an inquiry sits outside solicitation under the Model Rule comments, while the consent rules still apply to automated sends; the response-time side is covered in law firm speed to lead.

Texting rules stack a federal statute, FCC regulations and each state's professional conduct rules, so confirm your plan with your state bar's ethics counsel or an ethics lawyer before you launch.

Frequently asked questions