Ambulance chasing

Ambulance chasing is prohibited in the United States. Such conduct violates Rule 7.3 of the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct.[3] Some bar associations strongly enforce rules against barratry. For example, the State Bar of California dispatches investigators to large-scale disaster scenes to discourage ambulance chasers, and to catch any who attempt to solicit business from disaster victims at the scene.[4]

In the UK, Indicative Behaviour (IB) 8.5 of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Code of Conduct 2011 specifies that "approaching people in the street, at ports of entry, in hospital or at the scene of an accident" is to be taken as an indication of non-compliance with the SRA Principles.[5]

The term has also been used to refer to disreputable motorsport journalists who cover racing crashes in a tabloid journalism-style with little respect for those who may have been injured or killed.[6]

In scientific literature the term “ambulance chasing” refers to a socio-scientific phenomenon manifest as a surge in the number of preprint papers on a particular topic. In particular it refers to interpretive papers published quickly after a new anomalous measurement has been produced.[7]

• NAACP v. Button (1963)
• In re Primus (1978)