“Strong Arm” Frank Azar wins $1.55 million in Google keyword lawsuit against Alabama law firm
Frank Azar on Wednesday estimated his firm suffered about $19 million in damages from Michael Slocumb’s approach, but said he accepted the $1.55 million settlement to end the legal case.
A two-year fight between Colorado’s “Strong Arm” attorney Frank Azar and “Alabama Hammer” Michael Slocumb ended this fall with the Alabama law firm ponying up $1.55 million, according to court records.
The Slocumb Law Firm agreed to pay that amount to Azar to settle a lawsuit Azar brought against the out-of-state firm in 2022 that accused the firm of leveraging Azar’s prolific advertising to poach clients.
Azar claimed the Slocumb Law Firm was creating deceptive advertisements on Google that made customers believe they were calling Franklin D. Azar & Associates when they were actually calling the out-of-state firm.
Slocumb’s firm bought Google ad keywords and used metadata to ensure its ads popped up when users searched for Frank Azar or his ubiquitous slogan, “The Strong Arm,” the lawsuit alleged. Slocumb’s ads then directed users to a call center where operators failed to correct callers’ misconceptions that they had reached Azar’s Aurora-based firm, the lawsuit claimed.
The practice of using a competitor’s keywords to bring up another company’s advertisement online is not uncommon and is generally not considered to be copyright infringement — but it is illegal to purposely confuse and mislead consumers.
Azar on Wednesday estimated his firm suffered about $19 million in damages from Slocumb’s approach, but said he accepted the $1.55 million settlement to end the legal case.
“We just didn’t want to mess around with litigation anymore,” he said. “Blood out of a turnip kind of thing.”
Slocumb did not return a request for comment Wednesday. As part of the settlement, he agreed not to use Azar’s name or slogan in any advertising or Google keywords.
Azar said he hopes the lawsuit and settlement will discourage other attorneys from using similar tactics to lure new clients.
“They pick on the big TV advertisers,” Azar said. “Because people see their ad, they go to Google to get the phone number and they misclick. And then all the sudden, boom, they’re getting this other law firm that they don’t know anything about.”
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