The most deceptive marketing technique employed by personal injury attorneys is touting a multi-million dollar verdict. The attorney never discloses whether the verdict was reduced or vacated by the trial court or an appellate court. Rule 7.1(a) of the Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct prohibits advertisements that contain “a material misrepresentation of fact or law or omits a fact necessary to make the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading”.
Even if the large verdict was not reduced or vacated, the real measure of success is how much of the verdict the client was able to collect. Unless the defendant is wealthy or well-insured, it is likely that the client will only recover a small fraction of the judgment. The result is that it usually doesn’t matter whether the verdict was for $300,000 or $3 million, because the amount actually collected will be the same.
