telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (03/19/90)
Jeffrey Feinberg and Adrienne Maidenbaum took a $197 ad on Page 68 of
the Greater Hollywood, Florida Yellow Pages to let everyone know about
the legal services they offered in their practice:
"Real Estate, trial practice, title insurance, divorce, father's
rights, abortion ... "
The trouble is, the word should have been ADOPTION -- not abortion.
Very stunned and dismayed, Feinberg and Maidenbaum, attornies at law,
demanded a recall.
Apparently someone at the printing plant in Atlanta slipped up and
mistyped the entry.
The attornies raced off to the courthouse. Broward County Circuit
Court Judge Linda Vitale granted their motion to prohibit further
distribution of the directory.
More than 220,000 copies had already been distributed throughout
Broward and North Dade Counties, according to Bell South Advertising
and Publishing Corporation. An additional 95,000 are sitting
undelivered in the warehouses of Bell South Distributing, waiting for
the outcome of a hearing set for Monday, March 19.
Jim Owens, attorney for Bell South Advertising admitted, "It's our
error. We're imperfect human beings. But it is not in the best
interest of the people in the area to stop delivery because of one ad,
no matter how concerned we are with the error. We caused the error,
we're deeply sorry for it, but we see no reason for the public to
suffer because of our error."
Feinberg said Bell South Advertising offered them a free full-page ad
in next year's run. The law partners were not satisfied. They asked
for damages and a disclaimer inserted in the next Bell South Telephone
Company billings in the region served by the directory.
He continued, "We really didn't need this. There isn't anything
positive about being an abortion lawyer. To a large segment of this
community, abortion is tantamount to advertising for contract murder.
Abortion is a very volatile issue and our firm does not want to be
associated with abortion."
To correct the error, Feinberg asked the court to order Bell South to
included a gummed sticker with the correct ad in all telephone bills
next month, along with instructions asking customers to paste over the
erroneous ad.
Patrick Townson