§ 9823. General Workers' Compensation Advertising Rules.

All advertisements shall comply with the following rules:

(a) No advertisement shall be false or misleading.

(b) All advertisements shall include the written or spoken fraud notices, in the manner set forth in Labor Code Section 5432(a), (b).

(c) If an advertisement includes a testimonial, it must not overstate or distort the facts or results of the person's case, and must qualify the testimonial by stating immediately before or after it: (1) that each person's case is different and that the reader's or viewer's results will not necessarily be the same as the example; (2) in the case of a spoken or pictorial testimonial when the speaker is not relating his or her own experience, that the reader, model or performer is an actor and not the actual person involved in the case. The advertisement must give the qualifying information in a similar manner and with similar emphasis as the testimonial.

(d) The advertiser must identify himself either by his true legal name or by a fictitious business name that was duly filed under Division 7, Part 3, Chapter 5 of the Business & Professions Code before using the fictitious name in an advertisement, and which fictitious name filing had not expired at the time of the advertisement. However, no such advertised name shall violate subsection (e). Notwithstanding the general provisions of the fictitious business name law, an advertiser must file its fictitious business statement before using it in an advertisement.

(e) An advertisement for a person who is not a physician (as defined in Section 9820(i)) may not use the terms “medical”, “physician”, or “doctor”; nor a term describing a specific area of medical practice such as “surgeon”, ”osteopath”, “psychologist”, “chiropractor”, “podiatrist”, “dentist”, “optometrist”, etc.; nor their linguistic variants; nor any similar designation implying that the person is a physician; in the advertiser's name or to describe the advertiser's services. In addition, an advertisement for a person who is not licensed as a physician in the specific area of medical practice named in the advertisement may not include a term describing a specific area of medical practice. However, an advertisement for a medical referral service may use the terms as provided in Section 9828(a).

(f) An advertisement for a person who is not an attorney (as defined in Section 9820(d)) may not use the terms “legal”, “attorney”, “law firm”, “law office”, “law center”, “counselor at law”, “specialist in workers' compensation law”; nor their linguistic variants; nor any similar designation implying that the person is an attorney; in the advertiser's name nor to describe the advertiser's services. However, an advertisement for a legal referral service may use the terms as provided in Section 9828(b).

HISTORY

1. New section filed 12-31-93; operative 1-1-94. Submitted to OAL for printing only pursuant to Government Code section 11351 (Register 93, No. 53).

Note

Note: Authority cited: Sections 59, 133, 139.43(b) and 5307.3, Labor Code. Reference: Sections 7, 139.43(a), (b), (d), 139.45 and 5430-5434, Labor Code.