The term ambulance chasing is a common slur against personal injuries lawyers soliciting for clients at the scene of an accident or en-route to the emergency department.
Are we ambulance chasers?
The law in Queensland strictly prohibits any form of ambulance chasing. In fact, the law in relation to advertising and securing work in personal injury law is extremely restrictive.
Personal injury lawyers in Queensland are restricted on how they advertise their services in electronic format – that is, on TV, radio or on the internet. We cannot use the term “personal injury”, even though this is exactly what we do. We cannot advertise in a way that may let you know of your legal right to claim compensation after you are injured in an accident.
We cannot hand you our business card at the scene of an accident. Nor can we ask a tow truck driver to hand over our cards on our behalf.
We cannot advertise in or around hospitals or medical centres. It is acceptable however, for us to visit you in hospital, so long as you have contacted our office first. We often arrange hospital or home visits for our clients who are unable to get to our office.
Unfortunately there are a small number of Queensland firms who regularly breach the regulations around personal injury advertising and illegally solicit for clients. You should avoid engaging a lawyer that acts illegally and unethically in relation to seeking out potential clients.
At GC LAW, we are not, and never will be, ambulance chasers.
