Lead Standards

Ethically Speaking… We Solemnly Swear

In August, 2012, the ABA House of Delegates adopted amended Model Rules 7.2 and used a Comment [5] to the Rule to explicitly accept allowing lawyers to pay nonlawyers for client leads:

[5] Moreover, a lawyer may pay others for generating client leads, such as Internet-based client leads, as long as the lead generator does not recommend the lawyer, any payment to the lead generator is consistent with Rules 1.5(e) (division of fees) and 5.4 (professional independence of the lawyer), and the lead generator’s communications are consistent with Rule 7.1 (communications concerning a lawyer’s services). To comply with Rule 7.1, a lawyer must not pay a lead generator that states, implies, or creates a reasonable impression that it is recommending the lawyer, is making the referral without payment from the lawyer, or has analyzed a person’s legal problems when determining which lawyer should receive the referral.

Just so that we are clear…

• We never recommend a particular lawyer or make mention of a specific law firm.
• We only accept payments consistent with Rule 1.5(e) (division of fees).
• We only accept payments consistent with Rule 5.4 (professional independence of the lawyer).
• Our communications are consistent with Rule 7.1 (communications concerning a lawyer’s services).

To comply with Rule 7.1, a lawyer must not pay a lead generator that states, implies, or creates a reasonable impression that it is recommending the lawyer, is making the referral without payment from the lawyer, or has analyzed a person’s legal problems when determining which lawyer should receive the referral.See also Rule 5.3 for the (duties of lawyers and law firms with respect to the conduct of nonlawyers); Rule 8.4(a) (duty to avoid violating the Rules through the acts of another).

We are a legal lead generation company that is committed to providing lawyers with quality leads ethically and refuse to do anything inappropriate to get these leads. As you can see, we are knowledgeable about the new ethics rules and outline in great detail information on exactly how we generate are leads.

Washington State Bar Approval for Legal Lead Generation

Best Case Leads is internally guided by the following principles:

• Committed to upholding ethical best practices in the Lead Generation industry.
• Employ a dedicated focus on customer satisfaction.
• Advocate for transparency between buyers and sellers.
• Uphold all legal guidelines and recommended marketing best practices provided by Federal and State law.
• Best Case Leads is CAN-SPAM Compliant, follows DNC (Do Not Call) and FTC guidelines.
• Refrain from statements that guarantee a service, imply incentives, or guarantee qualification for an activity when not accepted by the client or regulatory guidelines set forth by the FTC, CFPB, or any other federal, state, or industry regulatory body.
• Respond to all client and consumer complaints in a timely fashion.
• Mandate that all of our marketing pages have visible privacy policies and are up to date with our current activities.
• Uphold the best interest of the consumer and insures that all marketing messages are clear and properly represent the process the consumer is about to undertake.
• Committed to consumer choice throughout the lead generation process.
• Deliver all leads in real time, if not otherwise agreed upon with the lead buyer.
• Provides lead source data when requested or voluntarily through third party platforms. (Data may include: Sub ID, LeadID, referring URL, user IP address, User Agent data, browser information, time stamp, etc)
• Will not exceed the agreed upon distribution maximum for leads purchased.
• Has transparency to the source of all leads, when not generated on our own web properties.
• Does not participate in incentivized or co-registration lead generation practices, unless specifically requested by the lead buyer.
• Remains transparent and honest with our clients about the marketing channels used to generate leads.

As a member of LeadsCouncil, we are committed to and strictly strict adhere to the following Standards:

Responsible Contracting Practices

• Compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, including but not limited to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the CAN-SPAM Act and federal and state Unfair and Deceptive Acts & Practices (UDAP) laws.

Responsible Marketing Practices

• Provide to Inquiry Publishers and Affiliates (as requested, and subject to the confidentiality terms of the applicable Contract conversion and other data to enable Best Case Leads to perform quality analytics by source, including with respect to compliance with these Standards;
• Employ, or cause their Inquiry Sellers to employ, a technology platform that enables the monitoring and audit of traffic sources for compliance with these Standards; and
• Not contact Consumers who have so requested.

Best Case Leads shall use commercially reasonable efforts to:

• Restrict resale of Consumer Data by Law Firms; and
• Monitor and audit their traffic sources for compliance with these Standards.

Best Case Leads and Law Firms shall:

• Not conduct campaigns or other marketing efforts in a manner that is misleading;
• Not make any misleading, unfair, false, or deceptive claim or employ any misleading, unfair, false or deceptive solicitation strategy;
• Employ Landing Pages that provide a clear point of contact identifying the originator of the Landing Page;
• Not inaccurately state or inappropriately imply an endorsement, approval or affiliation of a program, product, or service by any governmental entity;
• Not offer or use incentives (including but not limited to earning rewards points, coupons, promotional contests, money, gift cards, or free items), to encourage Consumers to submit Consumer Data; and
• Not use any spyware, viruses, worms, spybots, keyloggers, or any other form of malware to gather Consumer Information.

Consumer Data

• Law Firms will only use Consumer Data to contact the Consumer with respect to the particular services the Consumer expressed an interest in and subject at all times to the terms of the privacy policy under which the Consumer provided the Consumer Data; and
• Maintain the confidentiality of each party’s confidential information.
• Permit auditing of compliance with these Standards.
• The transfer and storage of Consumer Data shall meet the following Data Privacy & Security Standards.
• Parties shall establish and maintain administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect consumer data, as well as a comprehensive written information security program describing the same that is based on a recognized industry security standard against which the program can be audited (such as ISO or NIST).
• Safeguards shall include: (i) limiting access to consumer data to authorized persons; (ii) implementing authentication and access controls within media, applications, operating systems and equipment; (iii) implementing appropriate physical controls to prevent unauthorized physical access to information assets, IT infrastructure and equipment; (iv) encrypting Sensitive Personal Information; (v) encrypting Sensitive Personal Information transmitted over public or wireless networks; (vi) taking reasonable measures to ensure that consumer data is not stored on any portable removable media; (vii) removing QS consumer data from any media taken out of service and destroying or securely erasing such media; (viii) providing appropriate privacy and information security training to employees; and (ix) maintaining a documented incident response plan.