18. a. No person, firm or corporation, or solicitors, agents, canvassers, employees or other persons acting on behalf of that person, firm or corporation, for the purpose of selling or contracting to sell or provide any service or services commonly furnished or performed by an embalmer or funeral director, including, but not limited to, prepaid funeral agreements and the making of at need or preneed funeral arrangements, shall:

(1) Directly or indirectly solicit persons in hospitals, rest homes, nursing homes or similar health care facilities by telephone or in person without first having been specifically requested to do so by that person;

(2) Directly or indirectly employ any agent, employee, assistant, independent contractor or other person to solicit persons in hospitals, rest homes, nursing homes or similar health care facilities by telephone or in person without first having been specifically requested to do so by that person;

(3) Solicit relatives of persons whose death is apparently pending or whose death has recently occurred for the purpose of providing any of those services for that person;

(4) Solicit, accept, offer to pay or pay any commission, bonus or rebate in consideration of recommending or causing any person to use the services of a particular funeral director, or the services of a particular crematory, mausoleum or cemetery; or

(5) Solicit persons at their residences in person or by telephone unless that solicitation is in response to a previous request for or expression of interest in a funeral director’s services made by the person solicited or by a member of that person’s family.

b. Nothing in this section shall be construed to restrict the right of a funeral director or an agent or employee of the funeral director, to communicate, by direct mail or in any other way not specifically prohibited by this section, with persons or provide them with information regarding the services of the funeral director, or to solicit the business of any person responding to that communication and explicitly requesting further information by personal visit or telephone, or otherwise initiating further discussion of those services, or to provide services or information to persons in connection with services previously rendered.

c. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit general advertising by a funeral director.

d. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit the payment of commissions, bonuses or other compensation to a licensed cemetery salesman for the sale of cemetery goods or services.

e. As used in this section, “at need funeral arrangements,” “preneed funeral arrangements” and “prepaid funeral agreement” shall have the same meaning as they are defined in section 1 of P.L.1993, c.147 (C. 45:7-82).

L.1960,c.184,s.18; amended 1993,c.147,s.15.