AVVO.com is the Best Online Attorney Directory

The cyber geeks at NetNews have rated AVVO.com as the best online attorney locating service. (See article below.) All three attorneys at BF&W have the highest rating possible from AVVO.com. It's a great site for legal consumers. www.avvo.com

AVVO.COM: Best Online Attorney Locating Service
NetNews.Net - December 1, 2011
-NetNews.Net © In the fast paced world of internet searching, one of the most congested search areas for internet users is in the area of locating a lawyer. The world wide web has done a wonderful job of bringing lawyers and lawyer locating services to our finger tips, but maybe, just maybe it’s brought consumers too much information.

A simple non-scientific review of internet searches for attorney locating services brings forth listings of well over 1,000 such services not to mention hundreds of paid ads flopped and pixelated throughout the pages. Add to this confusion the fact that many of the attorney directories on the internet and/or attorney locating services require the attorney to "buy-in" to receive a favorable listing or ranking and you begin to see the internet consumers dilemma when searching for an attorney.

But fear not, your friends at NetNews.Net have searched, reviewed and analyzed these digital repositories of legal service providers, a/k/a shark holding pens, and found that one of these services rises above the rest and warrants our designation as: The Best Online Attorney Locating Service. Obviously if you read the headline you know we are giving this distinguished designation to AVVO.com. Before making the points that led to this conclusion, readers should know two important facts: One, our research is non-scientific but all attempts have been made to analyze and review the online attorney locating services from the perspective of the reasonable internet user who brings forth his or her common sense when searching the internet for information. Two, AVVO.com has paid us to write this review. Not true but it was too easy of a joke to drop in. We have not been paid for this review and as with all reviews, we are simply trying to aid and assist our cyber-peers.

OK, with all joking and tongue-in-cheek commentary aside, why is AVVO.com the best online attorney locating service currently on the internet? Simple, besides offering an ability to "locate" an attorney it combines what we consider the three best qualities of these type services into one web site. These three quality factors are 1) Ratings, 2) Reviews and 3) Q&A Forum. Too many of the online directories we reviewed had none of these quality features. Many others were obviously "buy-in" sites with limited listings and information and featuring only those attorneys who paid for their exclusive listing. We liken these type buy-in sites to your late night sleazy Personal Injury TV ads .... we give these type sites high marks under the "ambulance chasing" category. Several of the other sites we reviewed had one or two of what we considered as the quality factors and they make our "Honorable Mention" roll below. AVVO.com, nor any of the other "Honorable Mention" services, require an attorney to pay to be listed. The listing is free; however, many offer upgraded listings or services for the attorney for a price. However, very important for us in our review was the fact that the listing, and in the case of AVVO.com, the rating, is free. So let’s now review all three quality factors offered by AVVO.com in a little more detail.

Ratings: Attorneys are assigned a rating by AVVO.com on a scale of 1-10. Ten being the "Superb" and the highest level. Their web site does not disclose specifically how it calculates the attorney ratings that are assigned but it does indicate career accomplishments by the lawyer such as legal publications, speaking engagements and affiliations with professional organizations are factors in the rating process. The other factor in the ratings that we like, is that AVVO.com tells you if the lawyer has ever had any disciplinary action brought against him or her by a Bar Association. Not only do we think this is important information for consumers, but we applaud AVVO.com as being the only online directory we reviewed that had the guts to post this information. Very big kudos and big khonies. Finally, AVVO.com reports that peer endorsements (see discussion below) do not factor into the rating they assign an attorney. Quite honestly, we have a hard time buying this since we all know about the "good-ol’ boy network in the legal fraternity. I.e, "you say I’m a great lawyer and I’ll say you’re a great lawyer even though were both really worthless piles of cow dung and the public will never be the wiser." Despite our suspicions on this point, we’ll take their word on this point and give them credit for not allowing an attorney to up his or her rating by having all of his or her peers provide glowing endorsements.

Peer & Client Reviews: As mentioned the AVVO.com site allows for clients and peers to review and comment on the lawyers skills and services. Client reviews through out the various attorney profiles we reviewed often appeared forced or fake, maybe we’re just cynical but the fact that the site allows former clients a place to comment on the attorney’s services is a plus. The peer endorsements from other attorneys is a nice feature but we are skeptical about compliments about legal skills published by other attorneys. It’s akin to a conversation among sharks: "Hey your teeth look extra sharp and dangerous today. Why thank you. Your teeth are looking exceptionally vicious as well." Again a few other online attorney locating services allow for these type peer and client reviews and these features are certainly a positive However, within this category we also include reviews and comments made in response to an attorneys participation in the Questions and Answers forum of the web site. When an attorney responds to a posted question it becomes part of the attorney’s profile. The person who submitted the question has an opportunity to review and rate the response and add commentary. By reviewing the attorney’s responses to questions, you are able to glean more insight into the attorney. You can also see if others thought the attorney offered helpful or meaningful information in his or her response. If you’re going to have to hire an attorney, don’t you want one that is going to help fix whatever legal mess you’ve found yourself in? We think being able to access and review the attorneys responses to questions may be more beneficial than the client and peer reviews.

Questions & Answers: As just mentioned besides offering a process to locate an attorney in your area for a specific type legal question or problem and offering a rating service for the attorney, the site also has a very easy functioning Q&A Forum. To use the forum you have to register as a user and establish a password but it is free. Once you’ve done this then just fire away with your legal question. Questions stay open for about a week and you get an e-mail notification when an attorney has responded to your question. It’s free. The site has parameters and warnings about reliance on free legal advice but it also offers tips on how to ask or word questions.

In our opinion, this third feature is what makes AVVO.com the overall best online attorney locating service.

In conclusion if you want to use the internet to help address a legal issue and/or locate an attorney, we recommend AVVO.com. In our opinion it is by far the best and most comprehensive and user friendly online attorney directory on the internet.