I am not a fan of truncated legal information.
Short sound bites that deliver little, if any, concrete advice for immigrants and their families.
You’ve probably read such posts or heard such advertisements.
In recent years, these types of posts have become commonplace on social media.
An Emerging Menace:
Deceptive Tik Tok Advertising
On the surface, short videos can deliver authentic legal information. Promotions on social media are not inherently evil.
However, they are susceptible to deceitfulness.
For many immigrants and their families, distinguishing bona fide advice from deceptive guidance is nearly impossible.
Like a relatively undetected virus, the impact of false advertising is multiplied not simply by the depth of disease if one is infected, but also by its ability to spread rapidly throughout a society.
A recent news article covered the topic of postings by immigration lawyers on Tik-Tok, a social media short-form sharing platform.
The article highlighted the dangers with such advertising.
Over the past several months, the story pointed out, there has been an increase in posts that target undocumented immigrants, promising them green cards and work permits.
Typically, such posts feature an attorney speaking Spanish, dancing to music, or flashing green cards. Some have written captions that say “Get a green card now!” or “Fix your immigration status without leaving”.
The ads do not tell potential clients much about the actual services to be provided.
Of course not.
Why?
Because the words are chosen to carefully induce positive outcomes for any immigrant – even those who are facing long odds or are actually out of legal options to remain in the United States.
The truth is this.
These are not just social media posts. These are disingenuous promotions implying results that cannot be delivered.
No lawyer can guarantee that a client will receive a green card – especially when that lawyer has never talked to you in depth and knows absolutely nothing about your case.
And since these ads have such little information in them, immigrants are led down a tunnel built on false belief.
Many of the immigration programs mentioned in these posts – in these ads – are not at all easy to win.
Such details, at best, are skimmed over. More often, such points are ignored altogether.
In other words, social media posts which primarily serve advertising purposes are far too often unreliable and deceptively misleading.
The Fallacy Of Short Attention Spans Does Not Justify Misleading Attorney Marketing
Unfortunately, many lawyers do not share my misgivings about attorney advertising on Tik Tok and other social media platforms specializing in lean content.
They assert short form ads are necessary because humans have limited concentration and won’t read, watch, or listen to anything longer than a few seconds.
I disagree.
Their claims are based on internet stories which assert the attention span of individuals has dwindled to anywhere from 15 seconds, to 8 seconds, to 3 seconds.
In fact, some studies note that the average attention of a goldfish, at 9 seconds, is greater than the average attention spans of human beings.
This research does not justify miniature legal sound bites.
To begin, theses studies are based upon an attention span fallacy.
The length of concentration by walking, talking, breathing humans is task-dependent.
A person’s mental focus depends on what a person is doing at a specific moment.
Studies that suggest our attention spans are micro-short are focused on human beings using their cell phones, or on social media, flipping through tons of information rapidly.
That is not the only way we use our brains.
More significantly, it is not the way that college-educated immigration lawyers should be talking about immigration issues to relatively uninformed individuals.
Our duty to care for, protect, and guide clients mandates a higher degree of authenticity.
Lawyers Who Use Short Form Media:
Where Is The Accountability?
In my view, such minimalist presentations far too often lack the professional transparency owed to law clients.
This behavior is an insult, if not outright dangerous, to potential consumers – especially when such information can mislead immigrants about potential dangers that might await them.
The majority of these camouflaged ads focus on the most vulnerable immigrant populations – immigrants who have entered the country without permission, have overstayed a visa, have prior convictions, or have existing deportation orders.
The wording of their posts imply promises in cases where promises are not possible, especially without thorough legal evaluations.
It seems few clients who grasp the intent of such advertising would hire a lawyer with such a condescending attitude towards immigrants.
Given that many immigrants lack the sophistication to decipher such nuanced messaging, this cryptic approach belittles them. And it leaves them open to full-scale immigration fraud by less-than-honest representatives.
The advent of Tik Tok advertising reminds me of lawyers who sprung into action at the outset of the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Less than two weeks later, attorney postings started showing up all over the internet. Here’s a short sampling:
- “Deferred Action Lawyer – Permanent Residency Now!”
- “20 Years Experience – Deferred Action Attorney”
- “Experienced And Aggressive DREAM Act Lawyer”
The deceitfulness of these ads were clear.
Even today, DACA recipients have no road to a green card. DACA was less than two weeks, not 20 years. And since applications for DACA had not been printed, there was no basis to claim either past experience or aggressiveness.
Professional Lawyering Is Antithetical To Misleading Social Media Promotions
Of course, some advertisers assert that once a prospective client makes an appointment, they’ll assess that immigrant’s situation more closely.
Unfortunately, how is a relatively uninformed immigrant to know the difference between those who make such claims and plan to conduct an honest evaluation from those who have no such intentions?
If lawyers are allowed to self-police their marketing, then they must hold themselves to the highest levels of professionalism.
(By the way, this criticism is not limited to immigration lawyers. Notarios, legal assistants, and paralegals alike utilize underhanded tactics.)
To be clear, I am not against attorneys who use language that simplifies immigration rules. This helps non-lawyers understand the real meanings of legal concepts.
In fact, I am a strong proponent of not speaking above a client’s head, above a client’s level of comprehension, to the fullest extent possible.
But I am opposed to sound bites on social media that deliberately encourage immigrants to take actions based on nuanced wording which borders on duplicity.
Immigrants are not stupid. They are merely uninformed . . . for now.
These slick and ambiguous social media posts, however, treat immigrants as if they are genetically clueless and unworthy of genuine assistance.
Yet, nearly all immigrants have the ability to understand complicated concepts, when their representatives take the time to explain rules and regulations in comprehensible chunks.
Thus, I have a message for those attorneys who profess they truly want to help immigrants yet who are creating such less-than-candid social media posts.
Cut the crap.
Show potential clients greater respect.
They deserve nothing less.
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