Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Relay the show for forward thinking law firm owners. I'm Gabriel Steeritz and today we're tackling something that's about to reshape how every personal injury law firm handles marketing and client communication. I'm talking about FCC's new one to one consent rules that are going into effect or went into effect in January of 2025. And from what I'm seeing across the industry, a lot of law firms are either scrambling to catch up or have not directly addressed this head on. And if you're running any kind of volume practice, this is going to affect how you handle leads, follow ups and client communication. Now, now, I know you're thinking, great, another regulation to worry about. But here's why this one's different. It's specifically targeting how lead generations and law firms handle mass communications. And if you're like most firms I talk to, you're probably using automated texts, phone calls, or some kind of lead generation system that's going to need an update. I'm going to break down these new rules, what it means for your firm, and most importantly, what you need to do about it. We'll cover the technology updates you'll need, the timeline you should follow, and how to protect your marketing investment while staying compliant client. If you're spending real money on advertising, running a volume practice, or using any kind of automated communication, you're going to want to stay with me on this one. Let's dive in. Let me break down why these rules are hitting law firms so hard right now. You know how it goes. You're sitting at your desk and a client reaches out through a website. You're looking for help with their accident case. Next thing you know, they're getting bombarded with calls and texts from a dozen law firms. We've all seen it, and frankly, some law firms have built their entire business model around it. Well, the FCC took a hard look at this and other types of Legion services and saw the customer frustration and said enough. They found that a huge chunk of unwanted calls and texts were coming from these lead generation systems. And let's be honest, consent forms on these sites are often flimsy. Now, there are exceptions always to the rule, but consumers are tired of getting automated messages from a single checkbox consent that they didn't even read. So here's what really caught the FCC attention. They started seeing cases where a single checkbox was being used to justify hundreds of automated calls and texts. Now, I doubt that this is primarily being driven in the legal industry. There are spammier industries than law for sure. One consumer signing up on a website though, would suddenly get messages from dozens of different vendors. And if you think about it from the consumer's perspective, that is not what they signed up for by checking a single box. So what's interesting is the FCC is not acting alone on this. They lined up with the FTC and what they've been saying with their telemarketing sales rule. So both agencies are basically saying the same thing now. One checkbox cannot equal consent for multiple firms to start automated market. Let's talk about these new rules mean for your technology stack. So the FCC has implemented what they're calling a one to one consent rule. And it's exactly what it sounds like. One consent equals one firm. Pretty straightforward in theory, but in practice it changes a lot. So let's say you're running a comparison shopping website or Legion service. Find the right lawyer type platform. Under the new rules, you can't have a checkbox that says I agree to be contacted. Instead you need separate, clear consent for each individual firm that might reach out. So again, this does not apply to the specific marketing on a law firm's website, although it does mean that you need to put your law firm's name when you're creating consent on your website. And it doesn't allow you to then necessarily send that message onto other potential law firms. What we're really talking about here are the aggregator websites and a lot of law firms, and you may be one of them, buy from these websites and the compliance is going to get a lot trickier. So you're really going to need to talk to your vendors and understand what they're doing to stay compliant with this rule, because this rolls up to everybody who's involved. Now here's what the FCC says. The content of the follow up communications has to be, quote, logically and topically related, end quote, to where the consent was given. So if someone's looking for help with a car accident case, you can't start texting about mass torts either. Which means that the messaging back to those clients from these websites has to stay relevant and focused to the initial intent. So you have to think about your current intake system. If you're like most firms I work with, you probably have some kind of automated follow up sequence and you should have that to be clear because that guarantees more consistent touch points and more follow up with potential clients. That could be texts or automated dialers, phone calls, maybe both. Every one of those touch points needs to be covered by specific consent from the potential client. To the extent that that is automated. So not just a general okay to contact me, but consent for your firm specifically. So that applies to both calls and texts. Anything that's automated, whether it's robocall, auto dialed call or auto text message, falls under these new requirements. Now there is good news for those of you who are wondering if your entire intake system needs to be rebuilt. Not everything is changing. Let's talk about what stays the same under these new rules. If you're doing live calls, and I mean live calls, not automated or prerecorded, which is a lot of you, without using an auto dialer, so you're picking up the phone or your intake person's picking up the phone, dialing in a number, even clicking a number and then going to a single thing that's different than an auto dialer. So a click to calls, not the same things, auto dialer, you're in the clear. So the FCC specifically carved this out. So this is very much about automation. This is not about what human beings are manually doing. So a real world example here is your intake member is sitting there manually dialing potential clients that from leads that come in through your website. Totally fine, not touched by the new ruling. This is something I've had firms ask me about. The rules don't mess with your ability to transfer a live call to bring in an attorney or another team member. So if you're running a model where your intake team qualifies the lead and brings in someone else internally, you can keep doing that without any changes. But here's where you need to pay attention. And this is crucial if you want to follow up with that potential client later using any kind of an automated system, that's where the new consent requirements kick in. So even if you've done a manual live phone call with an intake person with that potential client, before you send automated text reminders to that potential client or client, you need that specific one to one consent. And that seems pretty significantly different to me than the past. This is a lot of similar vibes to what happened when the TCPA first came out. Everybody figured out, everybody's good. So the timeline here is soon as I'm recording this, January 27th of 2025, that's when this went. Now that may sound like a way out there, but if you haven't updated your systems yet, you definitely need to make this a priority. And if we're past the go live date, then you absolutely need to make it a priority. So you don't want to get caught not having understood what this is and how it applies to your firm. So we're seeing a lot of firms right now who are looking at this and who are getting ready for it. If you have not done this yet, you need to do an internal review immediately. It may not affect you. If you're not doing any automated communication via phone or text message, this doesn't apply to you at all. However, I would argue that you should be and you should also be getting the consent in case that is something that your team starts to do in the future. You don't want to have to go back and try to get consent from people who haven't consented yet. So first of all, take a look at your website and your intake forms. Most firms I talk to have some kind of a web form where potential clients can submit their information under these new rules. The form needs an upgrade. So you need clear, specific consent language for your firm. Not an okay to contact me checkbox. You need to spell out exactly how you'll reach them, what kind of communications they can expect and are consenting to. That's easy, that's scalable, that's a one time change. Now, if you're using something like a CRM to do automation, those need review all your automated touchpoints. Whether before or after your first point of contact with a potential client, those need to be covered by the initial consent. So you just need to make sure all of that lines up. SMS platforms under the new rules, you need clear separation between your marketing and your client. Communication, text messaging. So marketing texts need that one to one consent. Operational texts still do not. So appointment reminders, document requests, case updates, that's a different category because they're part of an existing business relationship. So the documentation piece is crucial. You need to store the consent. It needs to be easily accessible. Basically, you need to be ready if someone comes to you and says, have your clients consented? Or in a more likely scenario, someone saying, hey, you texted me and I never consented to that. You need to be able to point to that. There are great applications as well for the online consent that actually record the sessions, like Journeya. And there are other plugins for your website where it actually records the client clicking the checkbox. So it goes one step beyond just the checkbox itself, which theoretically could be entered by someone else. You're actually storing the IP address and a screen recording of them clicking the consent checkbox. So you need to be able to pull that up so that if someone ever calls you out on it and says, hey, I didn't agree to this, that's where you can point to the client consent. So you need to do this if you're not doing it already. And then also update your intake scripts so you can get verbal consent during phone calls. If you're recording your calls, you can get that specific one to one consent and you want your team asking, receiving that and having that recorded. So go ahead and audit your current tech stack if you haven't already. Find every automated communication touchpoint and then make sure that that is covered by the consents that you're getting from your clients and from your potential clients. If you get this right, you can have advantage because look, what is the main complaint here? It's people who are getting text messages and calls that they don't want. If people are saying yes, then at least at that point in time they do want that. And you are doing better by clients by getting that consent from them, asking them for their permission. So ultimately it may be a pain to get it set up, but it's going to drive better client experiences, better outcomes. So just to wrap up here, what do you want to talk about for your tech stack? You're talking about web forms, you're talking about storing and tracking consent, modifying any automation rules in your CRM as needed, checking your intake scripts for your team and making sure that those are being completed, complied with, and then updating text messaging platforms. So make sure that that's all done. Test it, make sure someone's accountable for auditing that. It's real easy to let these things start to slip, especially if people are involved. So the legal landscape is changing here in terms of marketing and you need to be up to speed on this. Between these FCC rules, AI regulations and everything that's coming next, there's a lot of things that are going to change in 2025. Don't get caught behind the curve. Make the change. Bring your team in the loop and get this taken care of. That's all I have for you today. Thanks so much for listening to the relay. I'll talk to you soon.
