ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 9, 1997 TAG: 9704090024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW HAVEN, CONN.
SOURCE: BRIGITTE GREENBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
A lawsuit says the phone company should stop personal-injury lawyers from alerting their names to start with an "A."
How do some personal-injury lawyers spell success? Apparently with an ``A.''
According to a lawsuit brought by one of their own, some personal injury lawyers will do just about anything to hook a new client - including altering their names to get listed first in the Yellow Pages.
The lawsuit, brought last month in Danbury Superior Court by Francis Shea, offers a glimpse into the highly competitive world of lawyers who specialize in someone else's misfortune.
``There's big money in personal injury,'' Shea said. ``Lawyers generally get a third of what they can recover.''
The lawsuit refers to John Haymond, a lawyer who advertises on television and has offices around the state. Don't look for him under ``H'' - he's listed in many Connecticut phone books under Affordable Legal Services.
But Shea isn't after the lawyers, at least not directly. He is suing Southern New England Telecommunications Corp., accusing the company of allowing attorneys to circumvent the rules of the alphabet.
``He (Haymond) doesn't have the power. The phone company has the power,'' Shea said.
Shea seeks more than $15,000 in damages, attorney's fees and a court injunction to stop SNET from listing Haymond and the rest first in the next round of phone books.
Haymond denies doing anything wrong.
``It is perfectly ethical to do business under a trade name,'' he said. ``We've been doing business this way for years now, and we have no intention of changing.''
Haymond said he didn't know what percentage of his business comes from the Yellow Pages. He's far from alone - phone books are rife with other possible examples of alphabet-jumping, though they aren't mentioned in the lawsuit.
The New Haven directory lists Mark Salomone first because he lists his practice as ``A accident attorneys always affordably available'' - or AAAAA.
So there is a grammar problem, not to mention ``affordably.'' But if ``A'' were ``An,'' like it should be, Salomone would be listed behind Haymond and several others. Edward Olender, advertising agent for the Salomone firm, declined to comment.
Then there is Jonathan Zorn, a Willimantic attorney who is listed first because his business is called ``A to Zorn Legal Services.'' He didn't return a telephone message left Monday at his office.
A spokeswoman for SNET, Beverly Levy, said only legitimate business names can be listed. The company does monitor ads to see if companies are creating a name simply to go to the front of the line for competitive reasons.
``You can't do business under one name and then list your ad under another name in the directory,'' she said. ``If the name of your business is the AAAAA business, then that's where you belong in the Yellow Pages.''
Why is it so important to get your name listed first in the alphabet soup of legal listings?
``Generally a consumer will stop there,'' Shea said. ``Con-sumers are naive, you know.''
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