Court reprimands lawyer over misleading ads

The Nevada Supreme Court publicly reprimanded a Las Vegas lawyer Friday for running a Spanish radio advertisement in 2008 that "grossly misstated the law."

According to the order, Anthony "Tony the Tiger" Lopez Jr. ran the 10-second advertisement on two radio stations in Las Vegas and one in Reno. It cost about $19,500 and ran for about three months.

The commercial told listeners: "If you have had an auto accident, by law you have the right to receive at least $15,000 for your case."

"The record demonstrates that the advertisement misled the public into believing that they had a right to $15,000 if they were involved in a car accident regardless of the merits of their case," according to the Supreme Court order. "Moreover, as the State bar argues, Lopez's prior instances of misconduct evidence his disregard for the rules of professional conduct."

Neither Lopez nor attorney Felicia Galati, who represented him at a disciplinary hearing in January 2009, could be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

A panel of the State Bar of Nevada's Southern Nevada Disciplinary Board conducted the hearing and found that the misrepresentations in the commercial "harmed the public by fostering unnecessary and unwarranted litigation by people who were not necessarily entitled to any recovery."

The panel, which rejected Lopez's argument that the commercial had been intended to inform the public of the minimum insurance requirements for automobile drivers, recommended the public reprimand. The panel also recommended that Lopez be required to run "a Spanish-language public service announcement campaign equal to the $19,500 (he) spent in promoting his misleading advertisement."

"This public service announcement would simply inform the public that drivers have a responsibility under Nevada law to maintain liability insurance with minimum limits of $15,000," according to the recommendation. "The advertisement must be a pure public service announcement and must not contain any solicitation for business."

The Supreme Court ordered Lopez to comply with all the panel's recommendations. Lopez, 49, has been licensed to practice law in Nevada since 1993.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.