At a Glance

• Georgia replaced its advertising and solicitation rules effective March 1, 2026. Older checklists may describe superseded provisions.
• Communications must not be false or misleading, including through important omissions.
• Include a responsible lawyer or law firm’s name and contact information.
• Specialty claims may rest on qualifying experience, training, education or bona fide certification, but must remain truthful.
• Written solicitation about specified injuries, deaths, accidents or disasters has a more-than-30-days restriction.

Supreme Court order S24U0172, November 18, 2025, effective March 1, 2026; 2023 SB 74

Read source: Supreme Court order S24U0172 · 2023 SB 74

Who Regulates

The Supreme Court of Georgia adopts the professional-conduct rules, and the State Bar administers lawyer discipline. The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division also identifies authority to investigate misleading legal advertising. A Bar-rule analysis is therefore not the entire legal review. The enacted 2023 SB 74 added O.C.G.A. 10-1-424.1 and revised 10-1-427, including the Attorney General’s investigative and enforcement provisions. These provisions are discussed as enacted. Check the current codified text and any later amendments before relying on them for a campaign.

Supreme Court order S24U0172, November 18, 2025, effective March 1, 2026; Attorney General: Legal Advertisements

Read source: Supreme Court order S24U0172, November 18, 2025 · Attorney General: Legal Advertisements

What Counts as Advertising

Rule 7.1 covers communications about a lawyer’s services, including advertising. Rule 7.2 permits communicating about services through media. Its comments expressly discuss websites, directories, internet advertisements and group advertising.

General-public advertising is distinguished from solicitation directed to a specific person whom the lawyer knows or reasonably should know needs legal services in a particular matter. Review both the message and how the audience is selected.

Order, Rules 7.1–7.3 and comments, pages 2–16

Read source: Order, Rules 7.1–7.3 and comments

Required Disclosures

Rule 7.2(d) requires the name and contact information of at least one lawyer or law firm responsible for the communication. Comment 11 gives a website address, telephone number, email address or physical office location as examples of contact information.

Qualifying language may also be needed to keep an otherwise truthful communication from misleading its audience. Review the whole presentation rather than assuming a small general disclaimer resolves an unsupported claim. The Attorney General specifically warns about people falsely portrayed as clients, false claims of Georgia Bar admission or authority to offer legal services, and solicitations lacking qualifying language needed to prevent deception.

Rule 7.2(d), comment 11, and Rule 7.1; Attorney General guidance

Read source: Rule 7.2(d), comment 11, and Rule 7.1 · Attorney General guidance

Filing, Review & Recordkeeping

The amended Rules 7.1–7.3 do not impose a general advertising-submission process or a fixed advertising-copy retention period. That is a bounded reading of these rules, not a statement that every related operation has no filing duty.

For example, Rule 7.2(b)(3) conditions a particular bar-operated nonprofit referral-service arrangement on an annual report to the Office of General Counsel, along with other requirements. The reporting obligation belongs to that specified arrangement and should not be described as routine filing for all law-firm ads.

As an editorial practice, keep the final campaign, approval history and supporting evidence. This recommendation is not a verified mandatory Georgia retention period. Statutory and specialized-plan obligations require additional review.

Order, Rules 7.1–7.3, particularly 7.2(b)(3)

Read source: Order, Rules 7.1–7.3, particularly 7.2(b)(3)

Results, Testimonials & Comparisons

Rule 7.1 prohibits false or misleading communications. Comment 3 explains that a truthful account of a prior result can mislead if it creates unjustified expectations without the facts and legal circumstances that produced it. Unsupported comparisons or claims about services and fees can also mislead.

The comment says appropriate qualifying language may prevent misleading expectations. It does not establish a universal approved disclaimer or allow a false statement to be repaired with fine print. Review testimonials in their actual context.

Client stories also raise confidentiality issues. Georgia Rule 1.6(a) requires a lawyer to maintain in confidence all information gained in the professional relationship with a client, including information whose disclosure would be embarrassing or likely detrimental to the client, unless the client gives informed consent or a stated exception applies, and that duty continues after the representation ends. A favorable result or a public court record should not be treated as blanket permission to identify a client or matter in marketing.

Rule 7.1 and comments 2–3, pages 2–3; Rule 1.6(a)

Read source: Rule 7.1 and comments 2–3 · Rule 1.6, State Bar of Georgia handbook

Specialization & Certification

Rule 7.2(c) permits truthful statements about practice areas. It also permits a lawyer who is a specialist through experience, specialized training or education, or who is certified by a recognized bona fide professional entity, to communicate that specialty or certification without misleading the public.

Georgia’s wording is different from states that limit all specialist language to specific accredited certifications. Do not import another state’s restriction, and do not imply a certification that the lawyer does not actually hold. Keep evidence supporting the experience, training, education or certification claimed.

Rule 7.2(c), comments 9–10, pages 7 and 10

Read source: Rule 7.2(c), comments 9–10

Firm, Trade & Domain Names

Rule 7.1’s comments allow nonmisleading trade names, website addresses and social handles. Names must not falsely imply government or legal-aid affiliation or an association with an unrelated person. Lawyers must not hold themselves out as one firm when they are not. A geographic clinic-style name may require an explanation to avoid suggesting public legal aid.

Rule 7.1 comments 5–7, page 4

Read source: Rule 7.1 comments 5–7

Solicitation & Direct Contact

Rule 7.3 generally prohibits live person-to-person solicitation significantly motivated by financial gain. Its exceptions concern lawyers; people with specified family, close personal, prior business or professional relationships; and people who routinely use the offered legal services for business purposes.

Additional restrictions remain even when the live-contact prohibition does not apply. Do not solicit someone who has said no, use coercion or other prohibited pressure, or approach someone whose physical, emotional or mental condition prevents reasonable judgment in hiring a lawyer.

Rule 7.3(c)(3) addresses written communications concerning personal injury or wrongful death, or otherwise relating to an accident or disaster involving the recipient or a relative. The accident or disaster must have occurred more than 30 days before the communication. This is not a waiting period for every advertisement or every legal topic.

The rule separately addresses court-ordered or law-authorized communications and certain prepaid or group plans. Other laws may still apply.

Rule 7.3(a)–(e), pages 11–12

Read source: Rule 7.3(a)–(e)

Channel-Specific Notes

General websites and search-generated responses are distinguished from solicitation in Rule 7.3’s comments. Easily disregarded written messages, including texts, are distinguished from live visual or auditory encounters. Neither distinction automatically approves a targeted campaign.

Rule 7.2 allows reasonable advertising costs and specified referral arrangements, but restricts paying for recommendations. Its lead-generation comment requires no recommendation by the lead generator, compliance with fee-division and independence rules, and nonmisleading communications. A lawyer must not pay a lead generator whose communication states, implies or creates a reasonable impression that it is recommending the lawyer, making the referral without payment from the lawyer, or analyzing a person’s legal problems to decide which lawyer should receive the referral. Check the actual service and compensation model, not just its label.

Rule 7.2(b), comments 2–8; Rule 7.3 comments 1–3

Read source: Rule 7.2(b), comments 2–8; Rule 7.3 comments 1–3

Recent Changes & Scope

The November 18, 2025 order took effect March 1, 2026. The State Bar’s announcement confirms that date. The Court expressly stated that adopting the amendments was not a definitive determination of the constitutional questions it had raised. This guide does not characterize the rules as constitutionally upheld or invalid.

A signed 2026 law also creates a scheduled change. HB 1344 adds O.C.G.A. 33-1-9.2 and repeals and reserves 33-24-53, addressing paid runners and certain collision-information activity. Section 16-1 sets January 1, 2027 as the effective date and includes applicability provisions for policies, contracts, certificates and taxable years. The new provision includes public-media and professional-referral qualifications that must be read with its definitions. New subsection 33-1-9.2(b) expressly includes attorneys in its collision-information restriction. Subsection (d) makes a violation a felony punishable by imprisonment of not more than ten years and a fine of not more than $200,000 per violation. Under this Act, the repeal of 33-24-53 does not take effect until January 1, 2027. Do not describe the replacement as already operative in November 2026, or assume this as-enacted review establishes that no other law changes the current statute.

HB1344 as passed, official signed-legislation archive, Sections 2-3, 2-4 and 16-1. The discussion here is limited to those enacted sections. Check the current statutes and any later amendments before planning a campaign; Court order; State Bar announcement

Read source: HB1344 as passed, official signed-legislation archive · Court order · State Bar announcement

Official Sources

Read the official rules alongside other applicable law and obtain campaign-specific advice.

Use the linked Supreme Court order for the complete amended rules and comments, and the State Bar’s current handbook to check for later changes. The Court’s amendment register is a later-change starting point, and should be read alongside the current handbook before planning a campaign. The Attorney General’s legal-advertising page explains a separate enforcement role. Guidance should be reconciled with current operative rules and legislation rather than copied as though every historic example remains unchanged.

General information, not legal advice. This guide does not approve an advertisement or establish compliance.

1. 2023 SB 74Official source · Checked November 12, 2026
2. Supreme Court order S24U0172, November 18, 2025Official source · Checked November 12, 2026
3. Attorney General: Legal AdvertisementsOfficial source · Checked November 12, 2026
4. HB1344 as passed, official signed-legislation archiveOfficial source · Checked November 12, 2026
5. State Bar announcementOfficial source · Checked November 12, 2026
6. Court’s amendment registerOfficial source · Checked November 12, 2026
7. State Bar of Georgia handbook, Part IV (Rule 4-102): Rule 1.6Official source · Checked November 13, 2026