The Avvo Rankings Controversy

In case you haven’t heard, a new internet site, Avvo claims to rate and profile lawyers using an objective “algorithm” that incorporates “information including experience practicing law, disciplinary sanctions, professional achievements, and client ratings.” Lawyers are already up in arms about this and some have filed a class action suit against Avvo, alleging that the ratings are “unreliable and meaningless, misleading to a consumer trying to find a lawyer.”

I’m not sure whether I loathe the idea of an Avvo.com as much as say, this gal, but I was going to jump on the dogpile this morning. Until I read this. Apparently, the owners of Avvo have realized some of the shortcomings of their rankings system and have acted accordingly. The key change they have made relates to the numerical rankings. Mark Britton, CEO writes,

we [will] apply a numerical Avvo Rating to a lawyer’s profile only when, in addition to having the lawyer’s licensing records, either we have collected information from the lawyer’s website or the lawyer has claimed his or her Avvo profile. Where we have only a lawyer’s licensing records, we will display an Avvo Rating for the lawyer of either “Attention” or “No Concern.”

They are also addressing one problem I noted while looking up some friends. Some lawyers are licensed in more than one state. Some have practiced for a number of years in one juridiction, but only a few years in another. This leads to duplicate profiles with oddly disparate rankings. Britton writes,

If a lawyer has more than one profile due to being licensed in more than one state (like me), he or she will soon be able to merge those profiles together into one.

These changes still don’t address the fundamental problem of the site – creating “objective” rankings from subjective data. I can understand the frustration many people face when trying to find a good lawyer. Most consumers have absolutely no idea how to go about choosing an attorney. I’ve gotten calls from people who needed a DUI lawyer or a will drafted and claimed to have simply pulled my name off the State Bar website. But ranking people based on the number of years of practice and whether they’ve been disciplined seems short-sighted.

If I were a consumer, I’d sure like to know that my lawyer didn’t graduate law school last May and that she had never been disciplined by the bar, but how do you rate the skills that make a good lawyer good – the ability to zealously and effectively represent a client’s interests?

Avvo claims to look at factors such as “experience practicing law, disciplinary sanctions, professional achievements, and client ratings.” Does the mere fact that you’ve been a member of the bar for 20 years make you a better lawyer? Of course not. You may not have even practiced law for that entire time. I will grant you that whether a lawyer has disciplinary sanctions against him is important to know, but when were those sanctions? Bankruptcy leaves your credit report after a certain period and you can’t be impeached in federal court by evidence of a criminal conviction over 10 years old. And what about those “professional achievements”? Doing pro bono work might make you a better person in the eyes of many, but does it make you a better lawyer?

Avvo just started, and clearly recognizes that it has a ways to go before it can truly live up to its claims, but is it really serving the interests of the public? For now, I’d say no, and take their rankings with a grain of salt.