Law Practice Management

Law Firm Sues Over Yellow Pages Ad

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The partners of a prominent Charleston, W.Va., law firm have sued the company that produces Verizon phone directories, saying that a mistake in its Yellow Pages ad is costing Neely & Callaghan legal business.

Idearc Media Corp. allegedly ran the wrong copy for the firm’s ad in the Charleston edition of its West Virginia telephone directories, changing the practice focus of what is currently a litigation boutique and putting the firm in a false light, reports the West Virginia Record. Instead of using the correct copy, the suit says, Idearc ran copy from a predecessor law firm’s ad. It also contends that Idearc didn’t give the law firm’s office manager a chance to proofread the ad before publication.

Plus, Richard Neely and Mike Callaghan contend in their Kanawha Circuit Court suit, Idearc libeled the firm by falsely reporting to a credit bureaus that it hadn’t paid the bill for the Yellow Pages ad, when Idearc knew it wasn’t owed any money due to the breach of contract.

Neely, the article notes, is a former state supreme court justice and a graduate of Yale Law School. Callaghan is a former federal prosecutor who previously served as the state secretary for the environment and state Democratic Party chairman.

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