Posted on June 11, 2007 by Larry Bodine

Lawyer threatens to sue A v v o Lawyer Rating Site

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
By John Cook, Reporter

Setting up an online rating system that attempts to rank the best and worst lawyers is kind of like dipping your toes in shark-infested waters. Sooner or later, you are bound to get bitten.

That's the situation facing Avvo, the heavily funded Seattle startup that just this week unveiled a controversial Internet site that ranks lawyers on a scale of 1 ("extreme caution") to 10 ("superb").

Seattle criminal defense attorney John Henry Browne, who in a Seattle P-I story Tuesday about Avvo called the service a "joke," is threatening to sue the company over what he calls a "ridiculously low rating" for him and other lawyers.

In a letter to Avvo dated Thursday, Browne -- whose score on Avvo actually has risen over the past four days from 3.7 ("caution") to 5.5 ("average") -- asks that his profile be removed from the Web site.

"We have yet to determine whether it will be a class-action lawsuit or not," he writes. "However, your rating and the attendant publicity has damaged my law practice and will continue to do so."

An Avvo spokeswoman said that a conference call has been scheduled between Avvo executives and Browne, with the company declining to comment further on the matter until that call is concluded. Since launching, Avvo said more than 1,200 lawyers have updated their profile pages, with more than 500 client reviews and 750 peer endorsements added.

Browne, who has participated in a number of high-profile cases in the state, including the defense of arsonist Martin Pang, said in an interview that Avvo is being irresponsible with the ratings and called them a fraud. And he questioned why Supreme Court justices and prominent lawyers score so low.

On Avvo, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg scores a 6.5 ranking, as does New York lawyer David Boies, who represented the U.S. Justice Department in its case against Microsoft, and Al Gore in the disputed results during the 2000 presidential election.

Three other lawyers interviewed by the P-I also expressed doubts about the rating system, while News.com reported that the site "seemed to be riddled with bizarre errors."

Based on some of the reaction to the service, including negative comments on the company's own blog, Avvo has altered parts of its site in order to make the ratings clearer.

"I realize there were/are some bumps -- and there will be more as we continue to test our beta. We will get all the kinks worked out over time," Avvo Chief Executive Mark Britton wrote on the blog.

Browne, for one, is not buying it.
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