The trend of personal-injury attorney advertising on billboards throughout the Philadelphia region continues to grow, but a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article questions their overall effectiveness. See the article here (behind pay wall).
Data shows that SEPTA saw a 400 percent increase in funds generated from legal advertising between 2021 and 2025. Additionally, the American Tort Reform Association, which has designated Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas as the nation’s worst judicial hellhole, found that the Philadelphia media market made the top-10 list of spending on legal advertising (digital and radio) in 2024.
Yet the effects of the barrage of advertising is still up for debate, according to the Inquirer article. According to an analysis by the paper, “filing in the four largest categories of personal injury cases in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas have declined in recent years.” The big exception being Medical Malpractice due to the rescission of the medical liability venue rule.
PCCJR Executive Director Curt Schroder questioned the need for such excessive advertising. “Nowhere is it written in the law or otherwise that every injury or every wrong has to result in a lawsuit,” he said.