Florida regulates attorney advertising more closely than almost any other state, and Rule 4-7.18 is the provision that governs contacting a prospective client directly. It is also a rule that gets described inaccurately more often than it gets read, including by vendors selling campaigns to Florida firms.

What follows is the rule as codified, with the subdivision letters checked against the current text of Chapter 4 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar rather than against secondary summaries. Where the Florida Bar's own Handbook narrative differs from the codified rule, we say so, because in two places it does.

The 30-day rule that does not apply to you

Start here, because this is the error that sends firms in the wrong direction and occasionally stops them from running a lawful campaign at all.

Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(A) prohibits a written communication to a prospective client if "the written communication concerns an action for personal injury or wrongful death or otherwise relates to an accident or disaster involving the person to whom the communication is addressed or a relative of that person, unless the accident or disaster occurred more than 30 days prior to the mailing of the communication."

Read what triggers it. The trigger is the subject matter of the communication, not the passage of time since something happened to the recipient. Personal injury. Wrongful death. An accident or disaster. A criminal arrest is none of those things, and nothing in Rule 4-7.18 imposes any waiting period keyed to an arrest, a booking, a charging decision, or a first appearance.

The Comment to Rule 4-7.18 uses criminal defense as its own worked example of a compliant targeted mailer. The rule does not merely permit criminal defense direct mail. It describes it, and tells you what it has to disclose.

The Comment states that a direct mail advertisement for criminal defense matters would comply if it stated that the lawyer's only knowledge about the prospective client's matter is the client's name, contact information, date of arrest, and charge. The Florida Bar's Handbook likewise uses an arrest as its textbook example of a permitted targeted advertisement, noting that being targeted triggers disclosure obligations rather than a waiting period.

There is one genuine criminal-adjacent timing restriction, and it is easy to miss. Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(G) prohibits a written communication concerning a request for an injunction for protection against physical violence, addressed to the respondent in the petition, where the lawyer knows or reasonably should know the respondent has not yet been served with notice of process. Domestic violence arrests frequently run alongside an injunction petition, so any firm advertising into that charge type needs to account for it.

What the rule actually covers

A second common misstatement is that Rule 4-7.18(b) is triggered by a specific event. It is not. The subdivision applies to any written communication sent directly or indirectly to a prospective client for the purpose of obtaining professional employment, whether or not a specific occurrence prompted it. A bulk mailer to a zip code is untargeted, and it still has to satisfy Rule 4-7.18(b).

What a specific occurrence changes is which additional obligations attach. Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(G) requires disclosure of how the lawyer obtained the information prompting the communication when it was prompted by a specific occurrence. Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(H) adds the envelope restriction discussed below.

Channel matters too, in a way "the rules apply to every channel equally" obscures. The words "text message" and "social media" do not appear anywhere in Rule 4-7.18. Their coverage comes from Florida Bar Board of Governors determinations reported in the Handbook, and the Handbook expressly carves out untargeted social media as general advertising that does not have to comply with 4-7.18(b). The required "Advertisement" marking also lands in a different place depending on the medium.

Filing: what it costs and where it goes now

Rule 4-7.19(a) requires a lawyer who advertises services to file a copy of each advertisement with The Florida Bar at least 20 days before first dissemination, subject to the exemptions in Rule 4-7.20. Two details in that sentence have changed recently enough that most published guidance on this rule is out of date.

$250
Current fee for each advertisement filed on time
$750
Current fee for each advertisement filed late
20
Days before first use the filing must be submitted
15
Days the Bar has to respond to a complete filing

The fees went up. The schedule is now $250 for each timely filed advertisement and $750 for each one filed late, effective July 1, 2026. The Bar described it as the first advertising filing fee increase in twenty years. The older $150 and $250 figures appear throughout the industry's published guidance and are no longer correct. Note also that the dollar amounts are no longer written into the rule at all. A 2025 amendment struck them from Rule 4-7.19(h)(8) and moved fee-setting to the Board of Governors, so any article citing a dollar figure to the rule text is citing something that is not there.

Late is measured against the deadline, not against your mail drop. An advertisement filed ten days before first use is late even if nothing has gone out yet. And the higher fee does not cure the problem. Rule 4-7.19(f)(1) treats failing to timely file as its own violation, separate from whatever the advertisement says.

Tallahassee is no longer in the rule. Rule 4-7.19(a) stopped naming Bar headquarters on September 9, 2021, when the Florida Supreme Court replaced it with filing in the manner the Bar specifies on its website. Filings now go through the MyFloridaBar Member Portal.

The 15-day window is a shield, not an approval

Under Rule 4-7.19(b), if the Bar sends nothing within 15 days of receiving a complete filing, the lawyer will not be subject to discipline for that advertisement. That is worth having, and it is narrower than it sounds. It is not a finding of compliance. The Bar can still issue a notice of noncompliance afterward, and under the same subdivision a lawyer who keeps running the advertisement after that notice can be disciplined for continuing. Silence buys you protection for what you already sent, not permission for what you send next.

Every mandatory element, with the correct subdivision

These are the content requirements for a targeted direct contact advertisement. The citations below were checked against the codified rule. Several of them circulate in the industry attached to the wrong subdivision letter, so it is worth confirming each against the rule text rather than against a summary.

The word "Advertisement," placed by channel
The rule requires it on the face of the envelope and on each separate enclosure, and for email, that the subject line begin with the word and any attachment be marked. For text messages and targeted social media, the Bar reads the same provision to require it as the first word of the message. That placement appears in the Handbook rather than in the rule text, so treat it as the Bar's interpretation.
Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(B)
Statement of the lawyer's qualifications and experience
A targeted communication must contain a statement detailing the lawyer's background, training, and experience.
Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(C)
Any contract or form must be marked SAMPLE and DO NOT SIGN
If the communication encloses a contract for representation, the copy must be marked SAMPLE in red ink and bear the instruction DO NOT SIGN. It is one of the most frequently omitted requirements in published summaries of this rule.
Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(D)
Disclosure of how the lawyer learned about the matter
Where the communication is prompted by a specific occurrence, it must disclose how the lawyer obtained the information. For docket-sourced criminal outreach, that means saying the information came from a public court record.
Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(G)
If another lawyer will handle the matter, say so
Where a lawyer other than the one whose name appears will actually handle the case, or the matter will be referred out, the communication must include a statement advising the client of that.
Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(F)
Name of a responsible lawyer, and an office location
Every advertisement must name at least one lawyer, the firm, or the qualifying provider responsible for its content, and must give the city, town, or county of a bona fide office of the lawyer performing the services. Note what is not required: no rule compels a street address, telephone number, or email address. Those are permitted content, not mandates.
Rule 4-7.12(a)(1) and (a)(2)

What the rule prohibits

Revealing the legal problem on the envelope
A communication prompted by a specific occurrence must not reveal the nature of the recipient's legal problem on the envelope, or on the outside of a self-mailing brochure or pamphlet. Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(H). Note the scope: this provision reaches the outside of a physical mail piece. It does not address email subject lines. The requirement that governs an email subject line is the "Advertisement" marking under (b)(2)(B). This provision is frequently described as covering email subject lines. It does not go there.
Advertisements that resemble legal documents
Written communications must not resemble legal pleadings or other legal documents. Rule 4-7.18(b)(2)(E). This one is widely miscited to (b)(2)(F), which is actually the referral disclosure. The two get transposed because older Florida Bar Handbook narrative still carries the pre-2023 lettering.
Coercion, duress, overreaching
A lawyer may not send a solicitation involving coercion, duress, fraud, overreaching, harassment, intimidation, or undue influence. Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(D). This is commonly cited as "(b)(1)(D-E)," which is wrong. Subdivision (E) is an unrelated catch-all incorporating Rules 4-7.11 through 4-7.17 and says nothing about coercion.
Contacting someone whose judgment is impaired
A separate subdivision bars the communication where the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that the physical, emotional, or mental state of the person makes it unlikely they would exercise reasonable judgment in employing a lawyer. Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(F). For criminal outreach this is the provision that actually constrains how early you move, and it is the reason the sensible target is a released defendant rather than one still in booking.
Contacting someone already represented, or who told you to stop
Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(B) covers a prospective client the lawyer knows is represented by another lawyer in the matter. Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(C) prohibits sending once the person has made known that they do not want to receive such communications. Note what (b)(1)(C) does not do: it is not an affirmative requirement to build an opt-out into every message. It is a duty to stop once you have been told. The affirmative opt-out obligation for text messages comes from a Board of Governors determination reported in the Handbook, not from this subdivision.

The SMS question the rules do not answer

Text messaging to prospective clients is permitted in Florida. The Board of Governors determined that the in-person solicitation prohibition does not extend to unsolicited text messages meeting the requirements of Rule 4-7.18(b), provided the lawyer offers an opt-out, recipients are not required to pay to receive the messages, and the lawyer complies with applicable law including the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

What no authority resolves is whether every message in a multi-message sequence must independently carry the required disclosures, or whether the first one suffices. Neither the rule nor the 2025 Handbook addresses drip campaigns, follow-up texts, or sequences at all. Anyone who tells you this is settled is guessing.

What the authorities do establish points one direction. The Handbook directs that all required information must be contained within the text message itself, and Rule 4-7.18(b) attaches its obligations to each written communication rather than to a campaign. A conservative reading treats each unsolicited message as its own advertisement carrying its own disclosures. A firm running a sequence where only the first message is marked should get that reviewed rather than assume it.

The two enforcement tracks firms confuse

These are separate bodies in separate departments, and the Florida Bar says so directly: complaints are prosecuted by a different department than the one reviewing advertisements filed under subchapter 4-7.

The filing review track

Advertisements filed under Rule 4-7.19 are evaluated by the Bar's Ethics and Advertising staff, with the Standing Committee on Advertising acting as the review body for unfavorable staff opinions. The outcome here is a notice of noncompliance under Rule 4-7.19(g). It is not, by itself, discipline.

The complaint and discipline track

A complaint from anyone, a competitor, a recipient, a family member, or the public, enters through the Bar's Attorney Consumer Assistance Program. Bar counsel screens it under Rule 3-7.3(a) and may decline it, dismiss it after investigation, or recommend diversion. Only matters bar counsel refers under Rule 3-7.3(f) reach a grievance committee, and advertising matters needing committee review are routed to the Bar's statewide advertising grievance committee, which exists under the special grievance committee provision at Rule 3-3.4(b) rather than under a rule of its own name.

Available sanctions run under Rule 3-5.1(a) from admonishment for minor misconduct through probation, public reprimand, suspension, and disbarment. Probation is the sanction aimed squarely at advertising: Rule 3-5.1(a)(2)(J) permits restrictions on the ability to advertise, either by type or as a general prohibition for a stated period.

The attorney whose name appears in the advertisement is the attorney who answers for it. Not the marketing vendor, not the platform, not the data provider. That asymmetry is the entire reason to read the rule yourself rather than take a vendor's word for what it says, including ours.

How Docket Flow handles this on your behalf

Docket Flow runs live outreach in Florida, Ohio, and Arizona, because those are the states where we have confirmed the model sits inside the advertising and solicitation rules. In other states we run compliant direct mail against the same court filings. We do not claim to operate everywhere, and we are not going to tell you we have cleared review in states where we do not run.

For Florida partners, we prepare the advertising filing package and submit it before anything is sent, and we build the message to carry the mandatory elements: the "Advertisement" marking, the responsible lawyer and office location, the qualifications statement, the source disclosure, and an opt-out. We maintain suppression lists and honor opt-outs on receipt. Because the fee is charged per advertisement and material changes require a new filing, we keep the message set deliberately small.

Two honest notes. The 20-day pre-filing requirement is a real lead time, so a Florida campaign cannot start the week you sign. And nothing here substitutes for your own judgment: you are the one whose name is on the filing, and we would rather you read Rule 4-7.18 and 4-7.19 yourself than take this article as authority.

One DUI firm per county

We prepare the filing. You approve it.

Check whether your county is open. We will pull the actual DUI filing numbers for your county before anyone signs anything, and tell you plainly if the volume does not support it.

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