AVVO Has Lost its Credibility
From Scott H. Greenfield's Simple Justice: Avvo made a big splash with its numerical ratings, but was subject to severe criticism from within the bar for its secret algorithmic methodology that burned younger lawyers and experienced lawyers who couldn't be bothered to play its game. Then Avvo gave up whatever credibility it might have had by selling paid lawyer advertising on the same page as its putatively consumer-useful informational pages, reducing itself to just another "business model." And I thought Avvo had such promise.
I guess the relevance now is that people have a ton of information available. It's just that most of it is either nonsense or unreliable. If you want to get a good laugh, check out Avvo and see who's putting in an effort to make themselves "special." Now it's no longer up to the cool kids, but each person by himself can create a persona that may be total sham. How does that help consumers of legal services to know who to select?
For further reading:
Avvo's Really Bad Answers
December 4, 2008
I never liked the concept of Avvo Answers, another ill-conceived effort to provide free legal advice online to consumers who want professional answers to their very serious questions without having to spend a dime.
http://blog.simplejustice.us/2008/12/04/avvos-really-bad-answers.aspx
Federal Judge Calls Lawyer Ratings "Nonsense"
January 3, 2008
U.S. District Chief Judge Robert S. Lasnik in Seattle, WA, declared in a 10-page opinion that lawyer ratings are “nonsense” and “ludicrous.” Specifically criticizing Avvo, the judge said, “the rating itself cannot be proved true of false.”
Bringing a Lawyer Back to Life: Should the General Public Trust ...
April 22 2008
Mr. robert ambrogi is a fellow blogger and MA attorney who wrote a strong criticism of avvo.com on june 5, 2007. I shared many of the same concerns that mr. ambrogi expressed in his blog, and then after reading a response letter by ...
The Emerging Business Advocate - http://seatondalylaw.spaces.live.com/
Illinois to Avvo: Drop Dead
July 16, 2008
From today's Chicago Tribune: Illinois Supreme Court: The high court on Wednesday denied access to information about the state's 85,000 licensed lawyers to a Seattle-based company that publishes online legal directories.
AVVO Refuses to Take Down Profiles on Request
June 12, 2007
A Washington, DC, marketing director contacted the controversial AVVO website, where lawyer profiles are put online and they are ranked on a 1-10 scale. She requested removal of the lawyers at her firm from the site. See Bizarre Errors on...
Attorney Rating System Avvo Draws Criticism
June 12 2007
Start-up site avvo raises the ire of some attorneys. It uses algorithms to rate attorneys, but the site is "riddled with bizarre errors, profiles of attorneys...
TVC Alert - http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/
Avvo's attorney rating system draws fire
June 8 2007 by John Cook
I find great humor, though it's touched with sadness at how Mr. Browne reacts to the Avvo website. It reminds me of the truism: The criticism that hurts the worst is the truest. Actions like Mr. Browne's are the reason that lawyers are ...
John Cook's Venture Blog - http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/
Well, AVVO is far from perfect. But it does provide a free directory to lawyers, and provides information to the public in an easy to use format.
And the fact that it's an easy way for the public to see if a lawyer has been sanctioned or censured by his or her state bar seems a valuable contribution on the part of AVVO.
And if there are errors about a lawyer on the site, the lawyer can go in and correct those. AVVO had me listed with incorrect data, but it was easy enough to change.
It may not be the Messiah of attorney websites, but for something that's still really in beta-testing mode, it is a contribution to more rather than less information to consumers.
Finally, the information posted by lawyers in answers to questions isn't always perfect, but it's at least fast. I haven't decided how I feel about that. On the one hand, people are now conditioned to want instant information. On the other hand, very very fast is going to be suspect, unless it's coming from a real expert.
AVVO seems to be banking on the idea that if ten lawyers answer a question, and one of them has been practicing for a week, and one is an av-rated 30-years in practice board-certified chairman of everything with an AVVO rating of 10, the consumer will rate that lawyer's answer as more reliable than the beginner.
I suppose AVVO could have decided that only an av rated board certified lawyer with a rating of 10 would be permitted to give answers to questions, but that would defeat some of the apparent purposes of AVVO.
Still, on balance, it's a promising beginning, because AVVO has only been around a short time; and according to the graphs on AVVO (not perfect evidence, I know), AVVO now has more eyeballs than three of the top four lawyer-finding sites.
So maybe not perfect, but still a promising entry with room for improvement; and that's what I'll watch for. If the model improves over time (and you'd expect the lawyer rating on AVVO to track, at least somewhat, the Martindale ratings) then the site may be a winner.
Letter to Mark Britton:
Last week my rating was 7.9 but through a glitch in your system you are reporting the a very old disciplinary matter twice and show me with a 1.0 and an "extreme caution" rating.
AVVO, your system erroneously reports reciprocal reporting as discipline in two states; it is a known software glitch. Your staff is aware of this error and had acknowledged it is a problem, but never seems to fix it for good and has to go in and refresh manually each time the error occurs. It has been corrected twice before. Both times this appeared, however, briefly, the consequences were devastating to me.
I opted to let it go, but if this is happening repeatedly, I not sure what to do. AVVO can you please help me and correct this right away?
Please fix the attached and let me know you do care about this.
I update my profile diligently, and I pray you have some compassion fix your error.
Please imagine how you would feel if you had to deal with a horrible untrue web posting by a large and powerful company that periodically surfaced and turned your life upside down warning clients away from you with "extreme caution" until their own acknowledged error was fixed.
It is horrible, and I assure you causing me a very sleepless and tearful night and has had severe economic consequences to me in the past. You have the resources to report accuratly and fix this.
Sincerely,
Jill Gilbert Welytok
Absolute Technology Law Group, LLC.
Milwaukee, WI