By Jennifer Riley
Drive I-95 through Philadelphia and you will see it within minutes: a somber warning about a medication you or a loved one takes, urging you to call a toll-free number before it’s “too late.”
The warning often isn’t coming from a doctor or public health agency. Most likely, it’s coming from a trial lawyer.
Pennsylvania is one of the most visible markets for this kind of legal advertising in the country. A 2023 review found that along a major stretch of I-95, roughly one in five billboards advertised a personal injury or mass tort attorney.
For anyone who drives that corridor regularly, the saturation is impossible to miss. Nationally, the American Tort Reform Association estimates law firms spent $2.5 billion on legal advertising in 2024, and found that the Philadelphia media market ranked among the top ten in the country for legal ad spending.
The sheer volume matters because these ads do more than solicit clients. They can shape how patients think about medications they are already taking.
We know that fear can change patient behavior. A federal review identified dozens of patients who, after seeing a lawsuit ad, stopped or reduced their blood thinner medication without ever consulting a doctor. Several died as a result.
Researchers call this the “nocebo effect”: when fear or negative expectations influence how a patient feels about the treatment, including whether they continue taking it. In these cases, the warning isn’t coming from the medical professional. It is coming from someone seeking a potential plaintiff.
This is not an argument against legitimate legal recourse. Patients genuinely harmed by a defective product deserve a path to accountability, and lawyers have a right to advertise their services. But there is a real difference between informing patients and frightening them into a phone call, and right now, Pennsylvania law does little to draw that line clearly.
Other states, including Florida, Texas, and Louisiana, have already shown that more can be done to rein in misleading legal advertising. Pennsylvania, with one of the most saturated legal advertising markets in the country, must do more to protect patients from this kind of fear-based marketing masquerading as medical guidance. ••
Jennifer Riley is the statewide Executive Director of Patients Come First Pennsylvania and spearheads its mission of ensuring Pennsylvania’s patients receive timely access to innovative health care. Readers can follow the effort on Facebook and X @PatientsFirstPA, and visit the website for more information at patientscomefirst.com.
