Earlier this week, Avvo, Inc., a free consumer-focused website that provides ratings and profiles of lawyers, announced that it has expanded its database to include every attorney in the states of Minnesota and Arkansas.According to a press release announcing the expansion, attorney profiles are now available in 20 states and the District of Columbia, and cover approximately 80 percent of licensed attorneys across the country. The site claims to include descriptions of attorneys’ practice areas, work experience, industry recognition and disciplinary sanctions. It also claims to collect and display client reviews submitted by consumers and peer reviews submitted by attorneys.
Curious, I clicked on the site and checked out several licensed attorneys I know. For most of them, there didn’t seem to be much information available -- not even their practice area.
Nonetheless, I encourage you to check it out. It can’t hurt to make sure that what’s there is accurate. And apparently you can “claim” your own profile for free, which allows you to make updates, invite lawyers to endorse you and invite clients to submit ratings. You can judge for yourself if you think the site is worthwhile.
1 comment:
Michelle – Thanks for your post and encouraging people to check out Avvo. One thing to keep in mind is that, when Avvo launches in a new state, we start with a large selection of consumer-focused lawyers (e.g., those that practice in areas like divorce, personal injury, etc.) to ensure we are immediately helping where it is needed most. The number of rich profiles we offer only increases from there.
At Avvo, our mission is to give consumers a better place to start than the Yellow Pages or search engines. Accordingly, the way to road test Avvo immediately after our Minnesota launch is to search for, say, personal injury lawyers in Minneapolis (here are those search results by the way: http://www.avvo.com/search/lawyer_search?q=personal+injury&loc=minneapolis). Then attempt the same task in the Yellow Pages or Google. Ask yourself, “If I were a consumer, which of these tools would help me make the best choice regarding which lawyer(s) I should interview?” At that point, you will weep at Avvo’s superiority :-) . . . and we will only continue to improve with each day we are in Minnesota.
We are honored to be in the North Star State.
Mark Britton
CEO, Avvo
www.avvo.com
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