Permanent ban on law firm's nursing home ad is overturned
The Georgia Supreme Court is giving a law firm another chance to contest a nursing home’s bid to stop it from publishing an ad that criticizes the facility.
In a decision on Monday, the court said the Mississippi-based McHugh Fuller Law Group did not have sufficient notice before a judge issued a permanent injunction that banned the ad, according to the Daily Report (sub. req.). The judge also erred by refusing to allow filings submitted after the injunction as part of the record on appeal, the court said (PDF).
The full-page ad, published in April 2014 in a Georgia newspaper, said the government had cited Heritage Healthcare of Toccoa, Georgia, for deficiencies in resident care. The ad invited those who suspected a loved one had been abused or neglected at the facility to call the law firm.
The nursing home said the ad referred to a 2012 inspection report rather than the most recent one, and deficiencies cited in the older report had been immediately corrected. The facility alleged the ad was deceptive under the state’s deceptive practices law.
Hat tip to the Legal Profession Blog.
