Lead Buying Is Now
a Criminal Offense in One State. Your State Is Likely Next.

One state just passed a law making it illegal to buy leads for your law firm — classifying the practice as a deceptive trade practice under its consumer protection act, opening the door to civil suits and criminal liability. This is the kind of thing a state attorney general can charge for. The law was aimed squarely at lead companies that were impersonating law firms — producing fake free consultation sites, running bait-and-switch call centers, creating lookalike branding — so that an injured person thought they were calling a real lawyer and were actually calling a call center that sold them to the highest bidder. Every firm involved in that chain — buying, selling, running it — is prohibited. The state was the first. It will not be the last. States copy each other on consumer protection, and this is a clean, popular target protecting injured people from scam operations.

Here is the good news, and it is the whole point of this video: the law explicitly protects traditional marketing. SEO, pay-per-click, radio, television, streaming, billboards, legal directories — all protected. The one condition is simple: your firm has to be clearly identified as the one doing the advertising. When you strip it down, this entire law is about one word — disclosure. If a consumer knows exactly who they are dealing with, you are fine. If you can’t say who is generating your leads, that is the problem. Own your marketing. Put your firm’s name on everything. Build campaigns where every ad, every landing page, and every phone call goes directly into your intake with your name attached. That is not just compliance. That is better marketing. And it is the only kind that survives whatever version of this law your state writes next.