Overheard on a commercial:
"I can't be a Realtor unless I complete ethics training."
And I can't be a lawyer without completing ethics training either. Which of course explains why people have such warm, fuzzy feelings about lawyers…
But with Realtors, it's completely different, right?
Edit: Let's dig into this deeper. What annoyed me about the commercial is the insinuation that all Realtors are ethical simply because they all had to take an ethics class. No need to worry about your Realtor cheating you - he took a class!
Now, I don't discount that some sort of ethics training is better than no ethics training, but I still think the commercial is trying to oversell the benefit. A trained Realtor may not be any more ethical in his dealings than a run-of-the mill real estate agent. (I presume that's who the commercial was trying to differentiate Realtors from.)
But to the extent that this messaging is effective (does it inspire confidence in the consumer?), should lawyers be using it too? After all, all new lawyers have had to take ethical training of some sort. Would people be more inclined to trust us, if they knew that? Should they?
Comments (1)
Yeah, I saw this, too, and thought it was totally lame. Maybe that's because I know how effective ethics training for lawyers seems to be. The question isn't really so much whether people in these professions must complete training, it's whether they actually behave ethically. Teaching ethical behavior does not necessarily produce it and I think most people realize that.
I wonder how realtors are regulated. What happens if they are caught doing something unethical? Can you find out before you hire a realtor whether he/she has had any ethical complaints or problems in the past? Why don't they talk about that in their ads? And why don't lawyers do the same? of course, I know why -- neither profession is probably proud of what people would discover if they started looking into those records. Still, making these records more public might be one step toward encourging more ethical behavior in these professions.
Posted by ambimb | March 19, 2006 8:53 AM
Posted on March 19, 2006 08:53