I have given Mueller an opportunity to correct the lies in his Super Lawyer and Texas Monthly October 2012 ads. Mueller misled me when I first met him in 2010 to believe he was very interested in making changes for the public good. He talks a good game.
But seeing him first hand in interactions with his staff and his behavior in front of me personally tell a different story. Since that time I have learned he has a drinking problem, is a male chauvinist who calls Tequila shots "pussy juice", insults his women employees by making jokes about their vagina and who thinks it is funny to fart in public at an FDA Public Advisory Committee meeting.
I am setting the record straight. This is a very crass individual.
I am filing a grievance against Mark Mueller with the State Bar of Texas for his misleading and false representations in advertisements and his willful disregard of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.
Mueller misled me and used my name, likeness and good will developed over several years with thousands of people to enhance his own stature with prospective clients through Jane Akre and the website he finances, www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com. Mueller said he wanted to do the right thing for women injured by synthetic surgical mesh which I believed to be true and therefore allowed advertising by Mueller on Truth in Medicine in 2011.
Women who signed with Mark Mueller later contacted me telling me Mueller had had no contact with them for extensive periods of time. I intervened on their behalf and ask for a meeting to discuss the advertisement going forward to no avail. Despite efforts over a two month period to have direct communication with Mueller for assurance he would be properly representing these clients, no telephone or in person meeting was ever held.
i pulled the advertisement from the website before the end of the term. I was put in an untenable position with women and men I was trying to help as a patient advocate because of Mueller’s false representations.
Listening to him speak at a recent conference was the final straw. He spoke as one of the steering committee members for the West Virginia Transvaginal Mesh MDL. His presentation defines him: He said 3 times synthetic surgical mesh is "crap" and "medical marketing". I am very concerned for the people he represents.
Not only did Mueller make a fool of himself in his presentation at the conference, as I was walking through the reception that night, a room filled with prominent attorneys, I saw Mueller walking through the crowd with a stuffed bear in his hand sitting on a piece of red satin cloth.
The anguish is over. I told what I know. I hope it helps others avoid falling into an attorney/client relationship with him.
TEXAS DISCIPLINARY RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
[underlined sections relate to Mueller false and misleading ads]
Rule 7.02 Communications Concerning a Lawyer’s Services
(a) A lawyer shall not make or sponsor a false or misleading communication about the qualifications or the services of any lawyer or firm. A communication is false or misleading if it:
(1) contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law, or omits a fact necessary to make the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading;
(2) contains any reference in a public media advertisement to past successes or results obtained unless
(i) the communicating lawyer or member of the law firm served as lead counsel in the matter giving rise to the recovery, or was primarily responsible for the settlement or verdict,
(ii) the amount involved was actually received by the client,
(iii) the reference is accompanied by adequate information regarding the nature of the case or matter and the damages or injuries sustained by the client, and
(iv) if the gross amount received is stated, the attorney’s fees and litigation
expenses withheld from the amount are stated as well;
(3) is likely to create an unjustified expectation about results the lawyer can achieve, or states or implies that the lawyer can achieve results by means that violate these rules or other law;
(4) compares the lawyer’s services with other lawyers’ services, unless the comparison can be substantiated by reference to verifiable, objective data;
(5) states or implies that the lawyer is able to influence improperly or upon irrelevant grounds any tribunal, legislative body, or public official;
(6) designates one or more specific areas of practice in an advertisement in the public media or in a solicitation communication unless the advertising or soliciting lawyer is competent to handle legal matters in each such area of practice; or
(7) uses an actor or model to portray a client of the lawyer or law firm.
(b) Rule 7.02(a)(6) does not require that a lawyer be certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization at the time of advertising in a specific area of practice, but such certification shall conclusively establish that such lawyer satisfies the requirements of Rule 7.02(a)(6) with respect to the area(s) of practice in which such lawyer is certified.
(c) A lawyer shall not advertise in the public media or state in a solicitation communication that the lawyer is a specialist except as permitted under Rule 7.04.
(d) Any statement or disclaimer required by these rules shall be made in each language used in the advertisement or solicitation communication with respect to which such required statement or disclaimer relates; provided however, the mere statement that a particular language is spoken or understood shall not alone result in the need for a statement or disclaimer in that language.
Comment
1. The Rules within Part VII are intended to regulate communications made for the purpose of obtaining professional employment. They are not intended to affect other forms of speech by lawyers, such as political advertisements or political commentary, except insofar as a lawyer’s effort to obtain employment is linked to a matter of current public debate.
2. This Rule governs all communications about a lawyer’s services, including advertisements regulated by Rule 7.04 and solicitation communications regulated by Rules 7.03 and 7.05. Whatever means are used to make known a lawyer’s services, statements about them must be truthful and nondeceptive.
3. Sub-paragraph (a)(1) recognizes that statements can be misleading both by what they contain and what they leave out. Statements that are false or misleading for either reason are prohibited. A truthful statement is misleading if it omits a fact necessary to make the lawyer’s communication considered as a whole not materially misleading. A truthful statement is also misleading if there is a substantial likelihood that it will lead a reasonable person to formulate a specific conclusion about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services for which there is no reasonable factual foundation.
4. Sub-paragraphs (a)(2) and (3) recognize that truthful statements may create “unjustified expectations” For example, an advertisement that truthfully reports that a lawyer obtained a jury verdict of a certain amount on behalf of a client would nonetheless be misleading if it were to turn out that the verdict was overturned on appeal or later compromised for a substantially
reduced amount, and the advertisement did not disclose such facts as well. Even an advertisement that fully and accurately reports a lawyer’s achievements on behalf of clients or former clients may be misleading if presented so as to lead a reasonable person to form an unjustified expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client’s case.
Those unique circumstances would ordinarily preclude advertisements in the public media and solicitation communications that discuss the results obtained on behalf of a client, such as the amount of a damage award, the lawyer’s record in obtaining favorable settlements or verdicts, as well as those that contain client endorsements.
5. Sub-paragraph (a)(4) recognizes that comparisons of lawyers’ services may also be misleading unless those comparisons “can be substantiated by reference to verifiable objective data.”
Similarly, an unsubstantiated comparison of a lawyer’s services or fees with the services or fees of other lawyers may be misleading if presented with such specificity as would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the comparison can be substantiated. Statements comparing a lawyer’s services with those of another where the comparisons are not susceptible of precise
measurement or verification, such as “we are the toughest lawyers in town”, “we will get money for you when other lawyers can’t”, or “we are the best law firm in Texas if youwant a large recovery” can deceive or mislead prospective clients.
Refers to “’medieval’ treatment of women” in the ads while Mueller himself uses despicable terms in referring to women with his employees and sub-contractors. Mueller disrespects women.
6. The inclusion of a disclaimer or qualifying language may preclude a finding that a statement is likely to create unjustified expectations or otherwise mislead a prospective client, but it will not necessarily do so. Unless any such qualifications and disclaimers are both sufficient and displayed with equal prominence to the information to which they pertain, that information can still readily mislead prospective clients into believing that similar results can be obtained for them without reference to their specific factual and legal circumstances. Consequently, in order not to be false, misleading, or deceptive, other of these Rules require that appropriate disclaimers or qualifying language must be presented in the same manner as the communication and with equal prominence. See Rules 7.04 (q) and 7.05(a) (2).
7. On the other hand, a simple statement of a lawyer’s own qualifications devoid of comparisons to other lawyers does not pose the same risk of being misleading so does not violate sub-paragraph (a)(4). Similarly, a lawyer making a referral to another lawyer may express good faith subjective opinion regarding that other lawyer.
8. Thus, this Rule does not prohibit communication of information concerning a lawyer’s name or firm name, address and telephone numbers; the basis on which the lawyer’s fees is determined, including prices for specific services and payment and credit arrangements; names of references and with their consent, names of clients regularly represented; and other truthful information that might invite the attention of those seeking legal assistance. When a communication permitted by Rule 7.02 is made in the public media, the lawyer should consult Rule 7.04 for further guidance and restrictions. When a communication permitted by Rule 7.02 is made by a lawyer through a solicitation communication, the lawyer should consult Rules 7.03 and 7.05 for further guidance and restrictions.
9. Sub-paragraph (a)(5) prohibits a lawyer from stating or implying that the lawyer has an ability to influence a tribunal, legislative body, or other public official through improper conduct or upon irrelevant grounds. Such conduct brings the profession into disrepute, even though the improper or irrelevant activities referred to are never carried out, and so are prohibited without
regard to the lawyer’s actual intent to engage in such activities.
Communication of Fields of Practice
10. Paragraphs (a)(6), (b) and (c) of Rule 7.02 regulate communications concerning a lawyer’s fields of practice and should be construed together with Rule 7.04 or 7.05, as applicable. If a lawyer in a public media advertisement or in a solicitation communication designates one or more specific areas of practice, that designation is at least an implicit representation that the lawyer is qualified in the areas designated. Accordingly, Rule 7.02(a)(6) prohibits the designation of a field of practice unless the communicating lawyer is in fact competent in the area.
11. Typically, one would expect competency to be measured by special education, training, or experience in the particular area of law designated. Because certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization involves special education, training, and experience, certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization conclusively establishes that a lawyer meets the
requirements of Rule 7.02(a)(6) in any area in which the Board has certified the lawyer.
However, competency may be established by means other than certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. See Rule 7.04(b).
12. Lawyers who wish to advertise in the public media that they specialize should refer to Rule 7.04. Lawyers who wish to assert a specialty in a solicitation communication should refer to Rule 7.05.
Actor Portrayal Of Clients
13. Sub-paragraph (a)(7) further protects prospective clients from false, misleading, or deceptive advertisements and solicitations by prohibiting the use of actors to portray clients of the lawyer or law firm. Other rules prohibit the use of actors to portray lawyers in the advertising or soliciting lawyer’s firm. See Rules 7.04(g), 7.05(a). The truthfulness of such portrayals is extremely difficult to monitor, and almost inevitably they involve actors whose apparent physical and mental attributes differ in a number of material respects from those of the actual clients portrayed.
The use of a stuffed bear in the advertisement makes a mockery of seriousness of the harm suffered by the synthetic surgical mesh clients represented.
Rule 7.03 Prohibited Solicitations & Payments
(a) A lawyer shall not by in-person contact, or by regulated telephone or other electronic contact as defined in paragraph (f), seek professional employment concerning a matter arising out of a particular occurrence or event, or series of occurrences or events, from a prospective client or nonclient who has not sought the lawyer’s advice regarding employment or with whom the lawyer has no family or past or present attorney-client relationship when a significant motive for the lawyer’s doing so is the lawyer’s pecuniary gain. Notwithstanding the provisions of this paragraph, a lawyer for a qualified nonprofit organization may communicate with the organization’s members for the purpose of educating the members to understand the law, to recognize legal problems, to make intelligent selection of counsel, or to use legal services. In those situations where in-person or telephone or other electronic contact is permitted by this paragraph, a lawyer shall not have such a contact with a prospective client if:
(1) the communication involves coercion, duress, fraud, overreaching, intimidation, undue influence, or harassment;
(2) the communication contains information prohibited by Rule 7.02(a); or
(3) the communication contains a false, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, or unfair statement or claim.
(b) A lawyer shall not pay, give, or offer to pay or give anything of value to a person not licensed to practice law for soliciting prospective clients for, or referring clients or prospective clients to, any lawyer or firm, except that a lawyer may pay reasonable fees for advertising and public relations services rendered in accordance with this Rule and may pay the usual charges of a lawyer referral service that meets the requirements of Occupational Code Title 5, Subtitle B, Chapter 952.
No comments:
Post a Comment