Robert Ambrogi and Carolyn Elefant are discussing today's launch of Avvo. Avvo is a site that promises to, eventually, rate every lawyer in the country. Currently, the system has rankings for lawyers from Arizona, California, D.C., Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. I searched the system for lawyers that I know, and I was puzzled by many of the results. I get the feeling that lawyers rated highly by Avvo are, in fact, likely to be fine atttoneys. However, I also get the sense that many fine attorneys will not be ranked highly by Avvo due to imperfections in the system's ranking criteria. I admire the effort and believe that the public would greatly benefit from an accurate rating of attorneys, but I think it's incredibly difficult to accurately rate lawyers. I think Robert Ambrogi sums up my thoughts, "I would worry that Avvo cannot live up to its promise, that plenty of well-qualified, hard-working lawyers will not get a fair shake, and that many consumers will be misled." Additionally, I think that for any system like this to truly help consumers, information about the attorneys' hourly rates should be included in their profiles. Consumer need to have cost information in order to make informed decisions.
UPDATE (6/7): Robert Ambrogi has more reaction to the Avvo rollout.
UPDATE (6/11): Should Bork Have Consulted Avvo?
UPDATE (6/7): Robert Ambrogi has more reaction to the Avvo rollout.
UPDATE (6/11): Should Bork Have Consulted Avvo?