The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit determined that the provision in Ohio’s workers’ compensation law which blocks anyone from soliciting in order to represent an employee or employer in a workers’ compensation claim or appeal violated the First Amendment. Though the Court acknowledged that there is an interest in protecting the privacy of recipients of attorney solicitation, they also said a total ban on solicitation was too broad and restrictive.

Before the state adopted this in their law, the plaintiff firm Bevan & Associates would submit public records requests to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation to obtain claimants’ contact information and then send them direct mail solicitations to hire their firm. The law did still allow journalists to request information about claimants. Bevan hired a client with journalism credentials to obtain records and continued to send mailings that way. They were subpoenaed and decided to file suit to invalidate this rule as it was unconstitutional under Freedom of speech.

Bevan argued that the ban was a blanket and unconditional prohibition on solicitation, while the state argued that the text made it clear there was only restriction on solicitation that was facilitated by wrongfully obtained claimant information. The Sixth Circuit said that the text at issue was unambiguous and as written, it bars both in-person and written solicitation with or without the use of ill-gotten claimant information. The state does have an interest in protecting workers’ privacy, but that does not extend far enough to justify prohibiting solicitation and does not outweigh the firm’s right to commercial speech. The Court said a letter does not “invade the recipient’s privacy any more than does a substantively identical letter mailed at large”. They reversed the decision and remanded it to the district court to enter summary judgment in favor of Bevan.

Read more here and here and check out the full case here.