Maryland Injury Law Center
Miller & Zois has never advertised on television or even thought about it.
I’m not on a high horse. I’ve never looked down personal injury lawyers who advertise on television. I’ve always found it annoying when people do. Everyone is doing their own thing. It is pretty amazing how many different paths personal injury lawyers can take to make a living. There is no one way to do this thing.
Overidenifying as a Lawyer
I also think that lawyers who look down on lawyers who advertise on television are falsely inflating their profession. Oh, it is fine for colleges and hospitals to advertise but lawyers, ah, we should be too noble to do that. I find it annoying when lawyers pontificate about how lawyers are exulted over other professions.
I don’t think lawyers are more (or less, by the way) noble than plumbers, or architects, or Indian chiefs. I don’t think anything happens to you in law school that makes you much different from anyone else. People overly identify and create these unique characteristics for their professions. Attorneys are the worst but nurses and teachers sometimes give us a run for our money. Get over yourselves, please. What you do for a living tells me nothing about you.
Laura and I never did television advertising primarily because we did not want to identify in our communities as lawyers. I’m proud of the work we do. But I can’t remember volunteering to anyone that I was a lawyer. This is not specific to being an attorney. I would be exactly the same if I was a hedge fund manager, violinist, or construction worker.
I Was Sure Yellow Pages Was the Path
It is funny, I have never written about this. But when we started Miller & Zois in 2002, my theory was the key to success would be yellow page advertising. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on yellow page advertising back when we were not taking salaries. I was so convinced that was the path. Man, I was so stupid.
The worst thing about yellow page prospective clients is that the cases were not nearly as good as a case you would get referred from another lawyer or from the Internet. So many yellow page calls were not even close to being potentially viable cases. I suspect television is even worse because it attracts a lot of impulse calls instead of people who clearly need a lawyer.
Baltimore Personal Injury Lawyer Market Share
I must get ten emails a day from someone hawking marketing services to personal injury lawyers. Lately, someone has been sending me monthly ad buys from personal injury lawyers in Baltimore. The 11.5 minutes of television my wife and I watch before we fall asleep is rarely live television. So we do not see many Baltimore personal injury lawyer television ads. So this is all news to me.
I’m passing it along because I thought it was interesting. This is for June 2021.
- Saiontz & Kirk Attorneys – $398,907
- Mike Slocumb Law Firm – $174,473
- Gilman & Bedigian Attorneys – $160,025
- Snyder Law Group – $115,359
- Law Offices ff Peter T. Nicholl – $86,224
- Cochran Law Firm – $78,386
- Spector & Kopec Attorneys – $42,790
- Cohen Snyder Eisenberg & Katzenberg Law Firm – $42,709
- DAmore Personal Injury Law – $32,554
- London Disability Attorneys – $28,105
- Cohen & Dwin Attorneys – $26,505
- Schochor Federico & Staton Attorneys – $20,868
- Rice Law Group – $18,521
- Miller Stern Lawyers – $18,218
- Leviness Tolzman & Hamilton Attorneys – $18,180
- Jenkins Block & Assoc Attorneys – $11,382
- Legal Help Center – $8,685
- Platinum Law Group – $8,110
- Guardian Legal Network – $7,700
- Jeffrey M Sirody Attorney – $5,405
- Crumley Roberts Attorneys – $3,010
- Fred S London Attorney – $2,670
- Smith & Reyna Attorneys – $2,150
- Rice Murtha & Psoras Attorneys – $2,099
- Negligence Network Attorneys – $2,040
- Morgan & Morgan Attorneys – $1,620
- Scott London Attorney – $545
- Goldwater Law Firm – $50
This all totals $1,356,975. So Saiontz & Kirk, Gilman & Bedigian, and Mike Slocumb make up more than half of the Baltimore personal injury lawyer television advertising.
I’m no expert, obviously, but I think if you are going to advertise on television, you have to go all the way in the way these law firms do. Otherwise, I don’t know how you build up the branding you need to make the numbers work.
But obviously, it is crazy expensive to go all in as these law firms have. And the cost of commercials is just the beginning. You also have to staff your office with enough people to handle all of the phone calls and have enough lawyers and staff to handle and fund the cases.
Here are some random thoughts on the list:
- Who is Smith & Reyna attorneys? My Google search was no help.
- There are three London law firms listed on here but I think it is probably all the same firm
- Platinum Law Group is the “Ouch Guys.” They should just call themselves the “Ouch Guys,” right? I thought it was a franchise chain (like Big Al) but I think there is just one “Ouch Guys.” I had never heard of this firm until I did a Google search. I get that there is a marketing angle in people knowing who you are and you are probably not going to forget that moniker, right? Still, setting aside the other problems, I think you are limiting yourself to small car accident cases. Does anyone in a serious injury or wrongful death case think to call the Ouch Guys?
- I can’t figure out what the Negligence Network Attorneys is.
- Legal Help Center appears to be a service that connects you to personal injury attorneys in your area.
- Mass tort lawyers can advertise anywhere so I’m surprised not to see more out-of-state firms on this list.