Law would ban lawyers from advertising DUI services

Defense attorneys would be banned from advertising their expertise with drunken driving cases under a bill advancing in the Senate.

Sen. Rosalind Kurita, a Clarksville Democrat, successfully added the provision to a bill that would create an online registry of repeat DUI offenders in Tennessee.

Kurita says officials have a hard enough time convicting drunken drivers without lawyers advertising their expertise in the field and offering discounts to DUI defendants.

Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle, a Memphis attorney, argued that Kurita's proposal would violate commercial free speech rights.

Kyle says that as long as lawyers are meeting ethical standards set by the state bar association they should be allowed to advertise their legal qualifications.