Why personality lawyers are so widespread in Philly

You may not have Heard the name James Helm, but when you live in the Philadelphia region, you saw his face, usually on advertising boards or septa buses.

As a rule, a grinning helmet is seen, which is a toy quota like an inflatable phone or a sack of cash over a yellow background that keeps words “call top dog” wrapped around it.

Helm is a fixed fixture if not a symbol of the growing phenoma of advertising advertising for lawyers in the Philly region.

A reader noticed a trend and asked the curious Philly, the forum of the Inquirer's Forum for Questions about the city and region: Why are there so many advertising boards and commercials for lawyers for personal injury? How are there enough business for so many different companies?

To answer these questions, we have to look at a little data and immerse yourself in a story.

How often are lawyers advertising boards?

Your eyes don't deceive you. There are many billboards for people injuries, and there is reason to assume that the number increases.

In 2023, Whyys Billypenn categorized the advertising boards on the I-95 route between Philadelphia International Airport and the Tacony Palmyra Bridge. They found that 20% were advertising lawyers.

This year, the Philadelphia Magazine carried out a similar review and had 63 attorney ads between the airport and the Cottman Avenue, which the magazine described as “Philadelphia's personal damage”.

In the 2021 financial year, Septa only achieved less than $ 400,000 from law firms. The agency predicted this number at 1.6 million US dollars in the budget of 2025 – an increase of 400%.

Philadelphia is not alone.

The American Tort Reform Association, a group that campaigns for the borders for civilian judgments and declared the top “Justicial Hellhole” in the nation for Philadelphia at the beginning of this year, found that law firms in 2024 spent an estimated 2.5 billion US dollar for advertisements in all media.

According to analysis of the association, the media market in Philadelphia created the top 10 edition lists for legal advertising in digital and radio.

And there are some known names for the top editions. On the list of the American Tort Reform Association is Morgan & Morgan from Jawn Morgan Infamy, which spent 218 million US dollars in 2024. Topdog is on the list for this year with 27 million US dollars.

How did we get here?

The answer to this question requires a certain story.

The legal profession has strictly ethical rules for the request of clients and until the 1970s, the lawyer's advertising was banned.

Opponents of the advertising argued that this would harm professionalism, that advertisements are misleading and that this has a negative impact on the judicial administration.

But 1977 the Supreme Court Increased a ban on lawyers and decided that it had violated the first packaging of the lawyers of freedom of expression.

Many lawyers hesitated the faces over the next few decades until John Morgan changed the game. At least that's how he tells it.

It all started with the Orlando Yellow Pages. Morgan sold the now Achic phone book to make money after college. In the 1980s, after graduating from the legal faculty, he called his old employer and asked to make an advertisement on the back of the yellow pages.

“If someone picks up the book in a certain way, there is a chance of 50/50 that they see my ad and never open the book,” said Morgan.

At that time, he says, his ad was the only one for the lawyer on the Yellow Pages in Orlando. His phone didn't stop ringing.

In 1989 Morgan started advertising for “serious”, he says and bombed one market after the other with advertisements – including Philadelphia. His law firm now has more than 1,200 lawyers with offices with offices nationwide, and he became a billionaire.

Morgan noticed that after the purchase of advertising boards and other ads in a region, other lawyers followed.

Morgan & Morgan became a tempting example for other lawyers who hoped to expand their companies, said Kyle Hbenstreit, the CEO of Practice Made Perfect, an advertising company in West Palm Beach that is directed for lawyers.

“Morgan & Morgan is a bit of a game book,” said Hebenstreit. “You can build a national practice if you are only very aggressive.”

(Morgan is a founder of practice that was made perfectly, but the business sold in 2022 when he entered markets in which he competed with advertising customers, said Hebstreit.)

Why advertising boards and buses?

The challenge of advertising for lawyers for personal injury is that there is no defined population group that is more of a claim, said Hbenstreit. For example, everyone could be injured in a car accident.

Advertising boards are a relatively inexpensive way to get the name of a company in the minds of people.

And as soon as some lawyers have their names and face on an advertising table, Hebenstreit said that others could only copy this approach.

But not every company jumps on the train.

You will not see KLINE & Spectre Billboards on the I-95. Shanin Specter, the company's co -founder, said that the message you want to convey more nuanced and, for example, a television location better.

“We want to say what there is about us, what makes us different,” said Specter. “This is not susceptible to a quick billboard message.”

Are there enough cases for all advertising lawyers?

Despite the concerns that attorney advertising would lead to an increase in lawsuits, the number of cases that were submitted to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in the four largest categories of personal injury has decreased in recent years.

The largest decline was in cases of motor vehicles, which, according to the courtyard data from 10,218 complaints, fell to 8,300 in 2024 in 2017. And slip-and-and-slogans decreased from 4,049 to 2,938 in the same period.

In medical cases of misconduct, on the other hand, an increase of 50% was recorded, which is due to a change of standard that made it possible to be submitted in Philadelphia more complaints.

Just because there are advertising boards everywhere does not mean that they are effective. Advertising is anything but a precise science, said Morgan.

“Half of my advertising works,” said the lawyer. “I just don't know which half.”

In addition, not every company shines on an advertising table. Topdog leads consumers to a “local lawyer”, while Helm, according to the small print, is on the advertising boards of the “advertising lawyer”.

The man behind TopDog is based in Arizona, although he is licensed in Pennsylvania for the responsibility of law. He refused to be interviewed for this story. On the company's website, “at least the common responsibility for most client files is maintained”.

Specter views advertising as part of the increasing access to the judiciary. Many people have no legal number in their Rolodex, and advertising can help those who have been injured to find a lawyer, he said.

“The advertising boards may be an imperfect way to offer Philadelphians a goal in the legal world, but they are better than nothing,” said Specter.

Curt Schroder, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform, sees the advertising boards as a more annoying society. Many ads refer to large payouts, and some even offer dollar bills. Lawyers “dangle the possibility of wealth in front of people,” he said and attracted people who would otherwise not call a lawyer.

“Nowhere is it written in the law or in any other way that every injury or injustice must lead to a lawsuit,” said Schroder.