The Actual Power of the Bar: Part Five

 

 

1. Powers the Bar Claims   2. Actual Powers: The Primary Enabling Statute    

3. Actual Powers: Article One  4. Actual Powers: Article Two (A)             

5. Actual Powers: Article Two (B)  6. Actual Powers: Articles Three thru Five 

7: Actual Powers: Article Six

Now we're down to Article 7 under Chapter 39 of Title 54.1; in other words, it's the last article under the chapter governing lawyers as a profession. This one governs the solicitation of clients. Anyone who has turned on a TV in the last twenty or thirty years has to realize that the various Bars have lost thier fights to keep lawyers from soliciting clients thru advertisements. That doesn't mean the laws against solicitation through a salesman have gone away, although all we're going to do today is look to see what powers the Bar is granted under them.

Surprisingly, it's not much. In fact, most of this article is handled through the criminal law and there's only one reference to the Bar in the entire article:

§ 54.1-3939 gives the Bar, by inference, the ability to approve legal aid plans and lawyer referral plans.