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Lawyer advertising. What do you need to know? Hi. Come on in. I'm Gerry Oginski, a New York
medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney practicing law right here in the
state of New York. And today I want to discuss with you some different types of lawyer advertising
that you may encounter when you're searching for an attorney. Now you're watching this
video because you've gone online and you want to learn what type of attorney is right for
you. Well, let me go back for a moment and let's take a look at offline methods of attorney
advertising first. You're driving on a highway, you see an attorney billboard, what do you
see? Usually somebody smiling and a 1-800 number. Do you really need information every
time you drive on the highway? Or what about radio ads? Well, same thing. In a radio ad,
you have 15 to 30 seconds where you must repeat the phone number over and over again and there's
very little time to distinguish yourself from anybody else. One of the big mainstays of
lawyer advertising over the last 35 years has been the Yellow Pages. And we all know
where the Yellow Pages has gone. It's gone down the drain. Why? Because people are going
online to search for information. How does an attorney distinguish themselves when they
all say the same thing in the Yellow Pages for example. They all say "Come to me because
we're great. This is the type of law we handle. No fee unless successful. Free parking." How
are you different from the other lawyer who just created the same type of ad as you? How
do you show your consumer that you're different? And the problem is they can't. Same thing
with attorneys who create TV commercials. They only have 30 seconds to talk about them
and their firm, and how great they are and the type of law that they practice. "Come
to us because we're great because this is what we do. We've got 30 seconds to tell you.
Now here's my fancy 1-800 number, go call right now." You know, you sound like a saleman
doing that. And I have to tell you, the majority of people don't want to be given a sales pitch.
They want to be educated. They want you to teach them how things work. The consumer can't
distinguish one law firm from another. So, how do you show you're different? Well the
way to do that is through the use of video. This way you get to see me, you get to hear
me, you get to learn about what I do and how I can help you. You get to learn about the
education I'm going to provide to you. And if you've seen any of my other videos - and
I have over 500 videos to help you understand how cases work in the state of New York - my
goal is to educate you. And that's what you need to do. You need to learn about the process
before you ever pick up the phone and make a call. And I get calls all the time from
people who said, "Mr. Oginski, I just saw your video about this topic, can I ask you
some questions?" So when you're searching for an attorney, look to see if the lawyer
provides you with useful content and information. Now, they can't give you legal advice but
what you should be getting is an education on how the process works. How does an attorney
evaluate a case? What do we need to look for? What are the elements that we need to prove
a particular case? Whether it's a malpractice case, wrongful death case, a personal injury
case - that's really important for you to understand. Does the lawyer give you free
books, free information, free tips on their website? Hundreds of frequently asked questions?
The goal for an attorney online should be to give you an education to teach you about
how the process works. And obviously, if you have questions, what I want you to do is to
pick up the phone and call me. I can answer your questions. This is what I do every single
day. You can reach me at 516-487-8207 or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com. I'm Gerry Oginski,
thanks for watching.