Alabama Lawyer Ad Rules: What Changed in 2026

The Supreme Court of Alabama rewrote Rules 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 of the Rules of Professional Conduct in an order dated May 13, 2025. The new text took effect on January 1, 2026. Rules 7.4, 7.5, and 7.6 did not change. The order also extended Rule 8.5 jurisdiction to any lawyer who offers legal services in Alabama. This is a plain-language read of the rules, not legal advice. Run your final wording past your own counsel or your regulator.

What you no longer have to do

The general disclaimer is gone. Former Rule 7.2(e) required every ad to say: "No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers." The new Comment to Rule 7.2 says the rule "no longer requires the use of a general disclaimer." Specific disclaimers remain, and they must be legible, shown long enough to read, and given in each language the ad uses (7.2(d) and (e)).

The filing duty is gone too. Former Rule 7.2(b) required a copy of each ad to reach the Office of General Counsel "within three (3) days" of first dissemination. New Rule 7.2(a) replaces it with record keeping: keep a copy of each communication for six years, with the date, recipient, and means of sending, and produce it promptly on request. Failing to keep or produce it is itself a violation.

Numbers that moved

Fee hold. Advertised fees bind the lawyer "for at least ninety (90) days after the date of the last communication referencing the stated fees" (7.2(f)). The earlier rule said 60 days.
Waiting period after an accident. No solicitation about personal injury or wrongful death unless the accident or event "occurred more than twenty-one (21) days prior to the communication" (7.3(b)(1)). The State Bar's guide lists the 21-day wait as new. A comment under the earlier rule said 30 days.

The court's Rule 7.3 PDF still carries an older 30-day comment next to the new one. The May 2025 order replaces that comment, so we read 21 days as controlling. We have not confirmed with the Office of General Counsel that the older comment is a publishing leftover.

Texts and targeted messages

The Comment to Rule 7.3 says "text communications initiated by or for the lawyer are real-time, person-to-person solicitations and are prohibited under Rule 7.3(a)." Email is not real-time and stays allowed, subject to the other rules. A chat the visitor starts on your site is not solicitation. Billboards, TV, web pages, banner ads, and social posts not aimed at one person are not solicitation either.

That is stricter than the national baseline. The Comment to ABA Model Rule 7.3 says live person-to-person contact "does not include chat rooms, text messages or other written communications that recipients may easily disregard." Neither of the State Bar's summaries says how the earlier Alabama text treated texts, so we cannot tell you whether this tightened or only clarified.

If you send a permitted targeted email or letter, Rule 7.3(g) and (i) set the format. Email needs "ADVERTISEMENT" in the subject line and at the start of the text. The first sentence of a targeted direct-mail or email solicitation must read: "ADVERTISEMENT. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RETAINED A LAWYER FOR THIS MATTER, PLEASE DISREGARD THIS COMMUNICATION."

Retargeting and tracking

The Comment to Rule 7.2 says a lawyer may not "retarget," use cookies, or otherwise track a website visitor unless the lawyer discloses it and the visitor consents, either by a checkbox or by continuing after notice. In practice that means a consent banner that loads advertising pixels only after consent. Neither State Bar summary mentions this provision, so the source here is the Comment in the court's current text. The same Comment says educational blogs and articles that do not solicit work are outside the disclosure and retention duties.

New requirements in the State Bar's guide

The Bar's guide to the updated rules and its article in The Alabama Lawyer list these as new or changed:

Testimonials must come from a person with personal, real, and direct legal experience with the lawyer (7.2(l)). See Can a law firm use client testimonials?
Actors are barred unless they play a nonspeaking, background role (7.2(p)).
Advertised results must be objectively verifiable and described by type of case (7.2(m)).
Purchased search terms cannot make a searcher think they are contacting a different lawyer (7.2(r)).
An ad must give the location of a bona fide office in Alabama, or say the firm has none (7.2(b)(2) to (4)).
A lawyer not licensed in Alabama must say so in ads that appear in Alabama (7.2(b)(1) and the Comment to 7.1).
A firm that advertises case types it mostly refers out must say so, in the words 7.2(j) sets.
Short-form ads, such as banners, may put required disclosures one click away.

Check your site against the new text

Remove the general disclaimer if it is the only one you carry. Keep any specific disclaimers.
Archive every ad with its date, recipient, and means of sending, and keep the archive six years.
Hold any published fee for 90 days after the last ad that mentions it.
Stop lawyer-initiated texts to people who have not asked for contact.
Put a consent banner in front of retargeting pixels and cookies.