(a) Any advertisement or other device designed to produce leads based on a response from a person to file a workers’ compensation claim or to engage or consult counsel or a medical care provider or clinic shall disclose that an agent may contact the individual if that is the fact. In addition, an individual who makes contact with a person as a result of acquiring that individual’s name from a lead generating device shall disclose that fact in the initial contact with that person.

(b) No person shall solicit persons to file a workers’ compensation claim or to engage or consult counsel or a medical care provider or clinic to consider a workers’ compensation claim through the use of a true or fictitious name which is deceptive or misleading with regard to the status, character, or proprietary or representative capacity of the entity or person, or to the true purpose of the advertisement.

(c) For purposes of this section, an advertisement includes a solicitation in any newspaper, magazine, circular, form letter, or open publication, published, distributed, or circulated in this state, or on any billboard, card, label, transit advertisement, or other written advertising medium, and includes envelopes, stationery, business cards, or other material designed to encourage the filing of a workers’ compensation claim.

(d) Advertisements shall not employ words, initials, letters, symbols, or other devices which are so similar to those used by governmental agencies, a nonprofit or charitable institution, or other entity that they could have the capacity or tendency to mislead the public. Examples of misleading materials include, but are not limited to, those that imply any of the following:

(1) The advertisement is in some way provided by or is endorsed by a governmental agency or charitable institution.

(2) The advertiser is the same as, is connected with, or is endorsed by a governmental agency or charitable institution.

(e) Advertisements may not use the name of a state or political subdivision thereof in an advertising solicitation.

(f) Advertisements may not use any name, service mark, slogan, symbol, or any device in any manner which implies that the advertiser, or any person or entity associated with the advertiser, or that any agency who may call upon the person in response to the advertisement, is connected with a governmental agency.

(g) Advertisements may not imply that the reader, listener, or viewer may lose a right or privilege or benefits under federal, state, or local law if he or she fails to respond to the advertisement.

(Amended by Stats. 1999, Ch. 83, Sec. 135. Effective January 1, 2000.)