Font Size: 
Court Clerk Sells Ad Space to Law Firms on Office Web Site
The National Law Journal
September 29, 2009
Dorothy Brown, the circuit court clerk for Cook County, Ill., has found a new way to raise revenue for her cash-strapped operations: selling advertising to law firms on her office's Web site.
At least five Chicago-area law firms have taken the opportunity to showcase their services on the circuit court's home page (www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org), placing flashing color ads for representation in DUI cases, divorce proceedings and home foreclosures. Sales of the ads, which click through to the firms' Web sites, have been so successful that Brown said she's looking for ways to expand the ad space.
"I've been trying to find different ways to raise revenue for the county because we're in a financial crisis," said Brown, whose court serves the city of Chicago and suburban areas.
She estimates that the ad sales, which began in late July, may bring in as much as $250,000 this year and perhaps more than $1 million annually in future years. For the three-month trial period, which ends Nov. 30, prices for the ads have ranged from $300 to $600 per month, depending on size, placement and other specifics, but those rates may go up in the future, said Jalyne Strong, a spokeswoman for the office.
A contractor, Chicago-based Municipal Media Solutions, was hired to manage the ad sales. But the clerk's office reviews every ad to make certain it conforms to certain guidelines, Brown said. The ads also have a disclaimer that the clerk doesn't endorse any of the advertisers and that the content of the ads doesn't represent the views of her office. Companies other than law firms can advertise too.
Lawyers who have bought the ads -- including those at The Law Offices of Sulaiman & Associates, Spiwak and Associates, and Custer Law Center -- say they see it as a way to reach potential clients. "I'm looking at it as a venue to get my name and telephone number to the public," said Cynthia Custer, a Chicago lawyer who handles divorce and personal injury cases, among other matters.
Custer, who started advertising on the clerk's site this week, said she decided to place her own ad when she saw an ad on the site that impressed her. After getting good feedback from colleagues on the idea, she went ahead. It's like placing an ad in the Yellow Pages, she said. Still, she noted she'd never seen advertising on a clerk's Web site before.
A brief survey of spokespeople for courts and clerks in some other major cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Boston, didn't turn up any Web advertising.
David Novoselsky is one Chicago lawyer who objects to the ads. He's suing Brown's office over the issue on behalf of Eric Perkins, a Wisconsin resident who has been a litigant in Cook County Circuit Court. The August lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Illinois, contends that the clerk is essentially giving a public endorsement of the lawyers' services by allowing their ads on the Web site.
"She has no business using the court's Web site for advertising," Novoselsky of Novoselsky Law Office said.
Brown called the lawsuit "frivolous," saying that the disclaimers make clear that the ads don't have her backing. "People who are using the Internet are smart enough to understand that," she said. "Pretty much every Web site you go to, they have these advertisements."
The lawsuit also alleges that Brown is improperly depositing the revenue from the advertising in accounts for the county instead of the court. To which Brown responds that at the time the lawsuit was filed, no money had been paid for the advertising.
