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Within 48 hours of being charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, the letters started flooding in.

The 30-year-old Davis County man said he received more than 20 individual criminal defense advertisements in the mail from people vying for his business after the charge was filed.

"It's really bombarding," the man said. "... I felt more like a criminal. Like they were just there to take the money, no matter what, instead of having a real attorney."

The man, whom The Salt Lake Tribune agreed not to identify because of his pending case, said he also felt like his privacy was threatened. He didn't want family members seeing the letters, and he couldn't believe how quickly his information became public.

"I think a couple of them even had the charges on them," he said. "It's crazy to me how they got that information. ... I just threw all [the ads] away. I'm just baffled by the whole thing."

Salt Lake City defense attorney Jonathan Jemming said these sorts of letters and mailed ads — some from organizations that are not law firms, but which pass cases on to attorneys — aren't helping the criminally charged at all, but instead are instilling fear and confusion.

Jemming said several of his clients recently received at least a dozen defense-related letters, ads and mailers after being charged with a crime. Some are straightforward and respectful, he said, while others carry a threatening tone and pit lawyers against one another.

"They are getting flooded with sometimes frightening mailers that are scaring them," he said. " ... It creates tension between the party and their existing attorney and manipulates them into making that call."

Jemming said the letters also pose a potential privacy issue if the mail is intercepted by a family member, landlord or possibly business associates who may not know about the charges.

"The exact harm that criminal attorneys are supposed to be preventing," he said, "they are creating [with] the mailers."

Whether these sorts of lawyer ads are ethical — and where to draw the line — is being debated among defense attorneys, according to Kent Hart, executive director of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

How it works • Hart and Jemming said they believe the attorneys who use targeted advertising are accessing the Utah Courts online records to glean names and addresses of defendants.

Information contained in criminal charges filed against an adult — including the accused's name, address and alleged charges — are public record under state law. Utah Courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said the courts don't have any rules or restrictions preventing attorneys or others from gathering this public information and using it to market their business.

An attorney, Volmer said, pays both a monthly fee and for each document downloaded from the court's website. However, she said, attorneys do not have a way to gather that information en masse and have to open each charging information document for those records.

There are rules set by the Utah Judicial Council that say what lawyers can and cannot do when advertising for clients. According to those rules, attorneys cannot solicit potential clients in-person, over the phone or using "real-time electronic contact."

They can, however, send ads through the mail or in an email as long as the mailer clearly identifies itself as an ad and does not involve "coercion, duress or harassment."

Hart said some of the letters are informative. For instance, in DUI cases in which the defendants may not know that their license will be suspended within 10 days of arrest, even if they are never convicted of a crime.

"Some of these letters do seem to be inducing some alarm," he added. "So the concern for the letters is, if it's just a letter, then that may be OK. But [there are] letters that are kind of saying things like, 'You better act fast' and 'You better do it now.' "

"KICK-ASS" attorneys • But are certain ads toeing the line or crossing it?

One such mailer provided by Jemming was inked with a snarling bulldog and promised a "KICK-ASS" attorney. Another, a seemingly handwritten note, informs the recipient that there is a "potential problem with your case" and that "your defense may be jeopardized with the wrong attorney."

Both mailers listed the phone number of Outlaw Legal Services, a Salt Lake City-based company that will "design" or "put together" a legal team for an accused person, according to its website. The company did not return multiple phone calls seeking comment about how the business operates.

The company, which previously operated under the name Utah Legal Group, was the subject of a 2014 Utah Supreme Court decision that overturned a defense attorney's disciplinary action from the Utah State Bar. According to that decision, the company's frontman is not a licensed attorney and the company is not a law firm, "but rather a marketing company that recruits paying clients for Utah attorneys."

It's companies like these that are of concern, Hart said, because they are not required to follow the same rules that attorneys do ­— and can confront people in person or send letters with questionable language.

Unclear rules? • Utah State Bar spokesman Sean Toomey said the bar hasn't received any complaints about mailed ads, though the association did privately admonish the defense attorney who was the subject of the Utah Supreme Court decision involving Utah Legal Group (ULG).

That complaint was lodged by a woman who was unhappy after ULG promised that her son would receive no jail time if she hired the group. After plea negotiations, the man was sentenced to jail for 120 days after entering a plea in abeyance to criminal trespass and aggravated assault charges, according to the decision.

The Utah Supreme Court reversed the bar's admonishment, though, after finding there was not substantial evidence that the defense attorney had violated lawyer rules. Bar officials had claimed that the attorney, who did not return requests for comment, broke the rules because he "did not obtain his client's informed consent to receive compensation from his client's mother by way of ULG."

Hart said attorneys with the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers have expressed concerns about these advertising practices, but noted that the Rules of Professional Conduct as they are written are unclear.

"Although the rules allow direct mailings to potential clients," he said, "the rules also suggest that specifically targeting persons who are known to be in need of legal assistance may unduly influence potential clients."

Hart added that the rules are also unclear about the ethics of hiring a third party — who may approach arrested persons in public or use other tactics that a lawyer cannot do — to find more clients.

"Like the rules on direct mailing, the Rules of Professional Conduct allow attorneys to use third parties to solicit business," he said, "But those rules are unclear on whether third parties may contact potential clients in person."

Jemming said the mailers — regardless of their tone or language — can be damaging to people who are already under stress because of their alleged crimes. He said he believes attorneys should find other ways to advertise and that the court system should be modified so people's information isn't so easily accessible.

"By nature of the criminal charges themselves, duress is created," Jemming said. "Every charge above the level of an infraction has a potential jail term attached to it. And so that, in itself, is a nature of duress that is being exploited."

Twitter: @jm_miller