Somebody stenciled “Look both ways before you cross” onto a sidewalk. Now there’s a police citation, a threatened bar grievance, and a public works invoice in the mail.
Trantolo & Trantolo, a Connecticut personal injury firm, spent part of the summer marking up sidewalks in Hartford and West Hartford with pedestrian safety reminders and crash statistics. One of them reads “There have been 12,418 motorcycle accidents in the state in the last 10 years.” It’s a nice reminder about road safety. Hartford police cited the firm and West Hartford power-washed roughly 24 crosswalk locations and, per its Department of Public Works, documented “the work performed and associated costs” — which is the government version of expect a bill.
The mayor’s objection, meanwhile, is that the campaign worked:
“People don’t want to walk through city streets or down Bushnell Park and think about slip and falls,” said Hartford mayor Arunan Arulampalam. Maybe that’s why you have so many slip and falls!
Still, if everyone can hijack the sidewalks for free advertising, then the sidewalks will soon become as bloated with useless, annoying ads as Google search. Hartford’s ordinance provides that no person shall place any “poster, placard, sign or advertising device of any kind upon any private premises, pole or tree or in any public place, without obtaining the written consent of the owner of the property.” The city takes the stand that the sidewalk is city property and the firm did not secure written consent from the proper department head.
A citation and a fine seems like the correct response, but the mayor told NBC Connecticut the city is also “looking into filing a complaint with the state grievance committee for improper attorney advertising.” Except there’s nothing false or misleading about this advertising.
Connecticut does admittedly have a few persnickety advertising rules, including Rule 7.2(e) requiring that any communication about a lawyer’s services include the name and contact information of at least one lawyer admitted in Connecticut who is responsible for the content. The stencils identify the firm — presumably Connecticut lawyers — but don’t seem to have a phone number. But a licensing authority would be hard pressed to get bent out of shape over that.
From the firm’s perspective, this is a useful public service in the form of a temporary campaign::
“Working with an outdoor advertising company that has executed similar temporary sidewalk campaigns in cities across the country, Trantolo & Trantolo recently placed a series of temporary stencils throughout Hartford and West Hartford highlighting important local and statewide safety statistics. The stencils were created using either power washing or temporary chalk—not spray paint—and were always intended to be temporary.”
Chalk washes off easily. Power washing a stencil shames the locality over its failure to keep its sidewalks clean. That’s why when West Hartford claims it diverted crews to power wash the sidewalks, your head thought they were removing spray paint, when really they were doing basic cleaning because the firm had done the sidewalk equivalent of trace “Wash Me” onto a dirty car.
Don’t put ads on the sidewalk without checking. Don’t threaten law firms with professional discipline for posting safety stats. Everyone just chill out.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
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