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Indiana Criminal and Traffic Leads and Direct Mail

The leads: We collect  criminal and traffic leads for all Indiana counties.

Types of service: We have two types of service: the Traditional Service and the Full Service. With the Traditional Service, we collect leads on newly filed Indiana criminal and traffic cases. We filter these leads according to your specifications in terms of the counties you are interested in, the types of charges (cases) you are interested in, and your general marketing strategy. We can then send you a spreadsheet containing these leads. You only pay for the leads we send you and we only send you the leads that you want. In addition, we also offer a free mail merge service. If you email us your letters, we will keep them on file, and then each day, Monday through Friday, we will mail merge the leads into your letters and then email you the already mail-merged letters ready for printing. We can also perform free mail merge into labels as long as you email us the brand name and number of the labels that you use.

For the Full Service, we handle the entire process for you, from collecting the newly filed Indiana criminal and traffic cases (the leads), filtering them to your specifications in terms of counties (or general district courts), types of charges that you are interested in, and any other strategy that you have. We then print your envelopes and letters in full color and mail off your mail pieces (advertisements). We mail each day, Monday through Friday. We are professional mailers and maintain multiple permits with USPS.

Price: For the Traditional Service, there is a one month (30 calendar day) free trial, followed by $0.30 per lead. For the Full Service, the price is: $0.70 per mail piece for the first 4 weeks, followed by $1.00 per mail piece. The Full Service price is all-inclusive and includes the cost of the leads, labor, postage, and materials. We print in full color on both the envelopes and letters at no extra cost. There are also no long term commitments. You can cancel at any time, just by emailing us. With either the Traditional Service or Full Service, you can cap the amount you want to spend so you can stay within your marketing budget.

How fresh are the leads? We collect the leads each day, every day, so it is as fresh as the data can be. We email the leads to you each day, Monday through Friday. Monday's data contains the leads from the weekend.

I am worried about returned mail and waste. What do you do to reduce returned mail? We run the data through special address correction software, and the address correction software eliminates bad, unfixable addresses, and corrects bad, fixable addresses. Address correction software will not eliminate bad addresses or returned mail but it will substantially reduce returned mail.

Can I pick and choose only the types of offenses/charges I want and only in the counties that I want? Yes. We can filter the data to your specifications according to county and offense/charge.

Can you help me execute complex marketing strategies? Yes, we can help you with just about any strategy, including, but not limited to:

  • Identifying out-of-state defendants so that you can target those most likely to hire an attorney instead of going to court themselves.
  • Identifying Hispanic records so that you can send an advertisement in Spanish.
  • Mailing for complex combinations of charges: like only mailing for driving on a suspended license charge if the defendant is also charged with either a DUI or reckless driving.

Is it easy to make changes? Yes, just email us and we can make the changes for you.

Any other special characteristics of your service: Yes, we can provide free mail merge to make things easier on your end. Basically, you email us your letters and we keep them on file. Each day, we mail merge the data into the letters, and then email you the already mail-merged letters along with the data. You can just open up the document containing the mail-merged letters and hit “print.” Then you can do the rest of the mailing process. It is that easy. There is no extra charge for mail merge. We can also mail merge the leads into labels for you, if you plan to use labels to address your mail pieces.

Can you do the mailings for me? Yes. This is called our Full Service. The price is $1.00 per mail piece ($0.70 per mail piece for the first 4 weeks of service). This is an all-inclusive price and includes the cost of the leads, postage, labor, and materials. We can also print in full color at no extra charge. We simply invoice you once every two weeks by adding the number of mail pieces mailed off for you during that two week period. There are no hidden or extra fees. You can also cap the amount that you want to spend so that you stay within your marketing budget.

Do you have any samples of the Indiana data or Indiana sample advertisement letters or mail pieces for me to look at? Yes, please email us at info@directlegalmail.com or use the contact box to the right, and we will send you a sample of the data and/or sample letters.

Ethics rules relating to direct mail advertising in Indiana

Rule 7.3. Direct Contact with prospective Clients

(a)    A lawyer (including the lawyer’s employee or agent) shall not by in-person, live telephone, or real–time electronic contact solicit professional employment from a prospective client when a significant motive for the lawyer’s doing so is the lawyer’s pecuniary gain, unless the person contacted:

(1)     is a lawyer; or

(2)    has a family, close personal, or prior professional relationship with the lawyer.

(b)    A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment from a prospective client by in-person or by written, recorded, audio, video, or electronic communication, including the Internet, if:

(1)     the prospective client has made known to the lawyer a desire not to be solicited by the lawyer; 

(2)    the solicitation involves coercion, duress or harassment;

(3)    the solicitation concerns an action for personal injury or wrongful death or otherwise relates to an accident or disaster involving the person to whom the solicitation is addressed or a relative of that person, unless the accident or disaster occurred more than 30 days prior to the initiation of the solicitation;

(4)    the solicitation concerns a specific matter and the lawyer knows, or reasonably should know, that the person to whom the solicitation is directed is represented by a lawyer in the matter; or

(5)    the lawyer knows, or reasonably should know, that the physical, emotional, or mental state of the person makes it unlikely that the person would exercise reasonable judgment in employing a lawyer.

(c)     Every written, recorded, or electronic communication from a lawyer soliciting professional employment from a prospective client potentially in need of legal services in a particular matter shall include the words “Advertising Material” conspicuously placed both on the face of any outside envelope and at the beginning of any written communication, and both at the beginning and ending of any recorded or electronic communication, unless the recipient of the communication is a person specified in paragraphs (a)(1) or (a)(2). A copy of each such communication shall be filed with the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission at or prior to its dissemination to the prospective client. A filing fee in the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00) payable to the “Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission Fund” shall accompany each such filing. In the event a written, recorded, or electronic communication is distributed to multiple prospective clients, a single copy of the mailing less information specific to the intended recipients, such as name, address (including email address) and date of mailing, may be filed with the Commission. Each time any such communication is changed or altered, a copy of the new or modified communication shall be filed with the Disciplinary Commission at or prior to the time of its mailing or distribution. The lawyer shall retain a list containing the names and addresses, including email addresses, of all persons or entities to whom each communication has been mailed or distributed for a period of not less than one (1) year following the last date of mailing or distribution. Communications filed pursuant to this subdivision shall be open to public inspection.

(d)    A lawyer shall not accept referrals from, make referrals to, or solicit clients on behalf of any lawyer referral service unless such service falls within clauses (1)-(4) below. A lawyer or any other lawyer affiliated with the lawyer or the lawyer’s law firm may be recommended, employed, or paid by, or cooperate with, one of the following offices or organizations that promote the use of the lawyer’s services or those of the lawyer’s firm, if there is no interference with the exercise of independent professional judgment on behalf of a client of the lawyer or the lawyer’s firm:

(1)     A legal office or public defender office:

(A)    operated or sponsored on a not-for-profit basis by a law school accredited by the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar;

(B)    operated or sponsored on a not-for-profit basis by a bona fide non-profit community organization;

(C)    operated or sponsored on a not-for-profit basis by a governmental agency;

(D)   operated, sponsored, or approved in writing by the Indiana State Bar Association, the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, the Defense Trial Counsel of Indiana, any bona fide county or city bar association within the State of Indiana, or any other bar association whose lawyer referral service has been sanctioned for operation in Indiana by the Indiana Disciplinary Commission; and

(E)    operated by a Circuit or Superior Court within the State of Indiana.

(2)    A military legal assistance office;  

(3)    A lawyer referral service operated, sponsored, or approved by any organization listed in clause (1)(D); or

(4)    Any other non-profit organization that recommends, furnishes, or pays for legal services to its members or beneficiaries, but only if the following conditions are met:

(A)    the primary purposes of such organization do not include the rendition of legal services;

(B)    the recommending, furnishing, or paying for legal services to its members is incidental and reasonably related to the primary purposes of such organization;

(C)    such organization does not derive a financial benefit from the rendition of legal services by the lawyer; and

(D)   the member or beneficiary for whom the legal services are rendered, and not such organization, is recognized as the client of the lawyer in the matter.

(e)    A lawyer shall not compensate or give anything of value to a person or organization to recommend or secure the lawyer’s employment by a client, or as a reward for having made a recommendation resulting in the lawyer’s employment by a client, except that the lawyer may pay for public communication permitted by Rule 7.2 and the usual and reasonable fees or dues charged by a lawyer referral service falling within the provisions of paragraph (d) above.

(f)     A lawyer shall not accept employment when the lawyer knows, or reasonably should know, that the person who seeks the lawyer’s services does so as a result of lawyer conduct prohibited under this Rule 7.3.

Commentary

[1]     There is a potential for abuse inherent in direct in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic contact by a lawyer with a prospective client known to need legal services. These forms of contact between a lawyer and a prospective client subject the layperson to the private importuning of the trained advocate in a direct interpersonal encounter. The prospective client, who may already feel overwhelmed by the circumstances giving rise to the need for legal services, may find it difficult fully to evaluate all available alternatives with reasoned judgment and appropriate self-interest in the face of the lawyer's presence and insistence upon being retained immediately. The situation is fraught with the possibility of undue influence, intimidation, and over-reaching.

[2]    This potential for abuse inherent in direct in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic solicitation of prospective clients justifies its prohibition, particularly since lawyer advertising and written and recorded communication permitted under Rule 7.2 offer alternative means of conveying necessary information to those who may be in need of legal services.

[3]    The use of general advertising and written, recorded, or electronic communications to transmit information from lawyer to prospective client, rather than direct in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic contact, will help to assure that the information flows cleanly as well as freely. The contents of advertisements and communications permitted under Rule 7.2 can be permanently recorded so that they cannot be disputed and may be shared with others who know the lawyer. This potential for informal review is itself likely to help guard against statements and claims that might constitute false and misleading communications, in violation of Rule 7.1. The contents of direct in-person, live telephone, or real-time electronic conversations between a lawyer and a prospective client can be disputed and may not be subject to third-party scrutiny. Consequently, they are much more likely to approach (and occasionally cross) the dividing line between accurate representations and those that are false and misleading.

[4]    There is far less likelihood that a lawyer would engage in abusive practices against an individual who is a former client, or with whom the lawyer has close personal or family relationship, or in situations in which the lawyer is motivated by considerations other than the lawyer's pecuniary gain. Nor is there a serious potential for abuse when the person contacted is a lawyer. Consequently, the general prohibition in Rule 7.3(a) and the requirements of Rule 7.3(c) are not applicable in those situations. Also, paragraph (a) is not intended to prohibit a lawyer from participating in constitutionally protected activities of public or charitable legal-service organizations or bona fide political, social, civic, fraternal, employee, or trade organizations whose purposes include providing or recommending legal services to its members or beneficiaries.

[5]    But even permitted forms of solicitation can be abused. Thus, any solicitation which contains information which is false or misleading within the meaning of Rule 7.1, which involves coercion, duress, or harassment within the meaning of Rule 7.3(b)(2), or which involves contact with a prospective client who has made known to the lawyer a desire not to be solicited by the lawyer within the meaning of Rule 7.3(b)(1) is prohibited. Moreover, if after sending a letter or other communication to a client as permitted by Rule 7.2, the lawyer receives no response, any further effort to communicate with the prospective client may violate the provisions of Rule 7.3(b).

[6]    This rule allows targeted solicitation of potential plaintiffs or claimants in personal injury and wrongful death causes of action or other causes of action that relate to an accident, disaster, death, or injury, but only if such solicitation is initiated no less than 30 days after the incident. This restriction is reasonably required by the sensitized state of the potential clients, who may be either injured or grieving over the loss of a family member, and the abuses that experience has shown exist in this type of solicitation.