Legal Ethics?

Question

What is professional touting?

Answer 1

Touting means advertising -- but in a boastful way. Saying you are qualified, or great, or unbeaten.

Under the legal ethical codes of most jurisdictions, attorneys can advertise as long as the statements are factually truthful -- which is more restrictive than most commercial advertising.

For example, a generic company can say "we're the best in the world according to our customers" -- and all they need is at least one or two customers who say that.

But an attorney cannot say "I'm the best attorney in the state" -- unless they can back that up with very hard statistics that show they are objectively better than any other attorney (which really cannot happen) -- and many states' ethical rules prohibit the kind of endorsement by clients ("he's the best") that are allowed for other companies.