Indiana has now joined other states in stopping the immediate mailing of advertising materials to accident victims by attorneys. This 30 day period was part of the new Indiana Supreme Court Rules on Advertising. The rules states that “a lawyer shall not solicit professional employment from a prospective client if . . . the solicitation concerns as action for personal injury or wrongful death or otherwise relates to an accident or disaster involving the person to whom the solicitation is addressed or a relative of that person, unless the accident or disaster occurred more than 30 days prior to the initiation of the solicitation.”
The Supreme Court wrote in the commentary to this rule that this “restriction is reasonably required by the sensitized state of the potential client who may be either injured or grieving over the loss of a family member and the abuses that experience has shown exist in this type of solicitation.
The rule is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2011.