Does your attorney make the grade?
I am a personal injury attorney in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From the moment I began practicing it was apparent that the legal system in Pittsburgh lacked a watchdog. Sure there is the disciplinary board but that’s about it. In my opinion, most matters that make it to the disciplinary board are of a grossly negligent and/or criminal nature. Lacking was a good competency review agency.
Well that problem appears to be solved. Avvo.com
is a website that, among other things, provides rankings of attorneys in Pittsburgh, PA and across the country on a scale of 1-10 with decimal breakdowns. While I don’t entirely understand the grading criteria, the idea behind the site is solid. Anyone can go to Avvo and look up a prospective attorney and learn critical information about that person. How long they have been practicing? What, if anything, have clients had to say about them? Have they been recommended by their peers? The site also provides tons of valuable general information about the attorney (publications, speaking engagements, awards, affiliations, etc). This open source of information benefits everyone.
The legal profession needs more transparency. From what I can tell clients have been kept in the dark for too long. People pay attorneys for a service. Why shouldn’t the people get to know as much about the attorney as possible before they decide to purchase their “product”?
I have heard lawyers complain about Avvo and other ranking sites. They argue that there is no clear basis for the grading and, worse yet, they complain that clients can write terrible things about them for the world to see. I can imagine how disconcerting it would be to have a negative comment pasted on such a public profile. This complaint, however, is somewhat short sighted. Clients typically become aggravated because something problematic happened during the course of representation. Rather than complain about the result, Avvo will force attorneys to work harder for and better communicate with their clients. This will lead to better comments and, more importantly, better service. Sure there are those exceptional clients that are so generally disgruntled that no amount of great work by an attorney will please them. A negative may be incurred. This however, is just one mark. Hopefully, if you are a good attorney that works hard for clients, the number of good reviews will far outweigh the bad. The public understands that you can’t please all the people all the time. But if you can’t please any of the people any of the time then that is something that the attorney and the public deserve to know.
So before enlisting the services of an attorney, an investment that comes at a premium, do your homework on them. I would recommend that you start your research with Avvo.
Here are a few posts/articles on Avvo that might be of interest:
Simple Justice
Robert Ambrogi
Build a Solo Practice, LLC
Larry Bodine
Class Action against Avvo
2 comments:
Brendan - thanks so much for your post on Avvo. I think you summarize our purpose very well - and the two sides of the coin - both consumers and lawyers benefit from Avvo.
If you'd like to add an Avvo badge similar to the LinkedIn badge you have here, you can do that directly from your Avvo profile.
-Conrad from Avvo
Thanks for the post Conrad.
Avvo can be abused by malicious people just like everything else on the internet. I have to believe that if you do good work then the reviews of satisfied clients will shine through.
Sites like Avvo will cause attorneys to iterate their practice in ways that, while unfamiliar, will ultimately improve their firm and the services they offer.
Regards,
Brendan
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