Avvo goes beyond ranking attorneys

Seattle lawyer-rating site Avvo has shifted some of its efforts from ranking attorneys to generating legal advice.

Launched in summer 2007 by Gonzaga University graduate Mark Britton, Avvo offers ways for attorneys to recommend each other in addition to letting consumers rate and comment on work done by a lawyer.

To date, more than 4,000 attorneys across the country have “claimed” their profile. That means they’ve signed up and sometimes added additional information. The claim rate is highest, naturally, in Britton’s own home state of Washington. Here, about 2,000 attorneys have done so.

So far about 2,200 reviews by clients of work done by lawyers have been posted on Avvo, said Britton. “Of those, about 80 percent have been positive,” he said.

Attorneys have the option of adding responses or providing extra information in a reply.

Each Avvo profile lists the attorneys’ city, specialties, any professional accomplishments and a numeric rating. The idea of rating attorneys angered some in the legal community who said they distrust a Web site that lets anyone post comments about their profession and its practitioners.

Britton, who was counsel at Expedia before starting Avvo, said the site continues to add more features to help potential clients understand the law better. And it’s adding ways for attorneys to add more information about their backgrounds and resumes.

The questions-answers section allows anyone to ask a question and then see replies. The replies come both from lawyers and from people who’ve had experience in that area. “You may want to know the answer to a question about divorce not just from the lawyer but also someone who’s gone through the experience,” said Britton.

Another new feature added is the Track Record option, added by Avvo in recent weeks. Britton said that came in response to requests by clients and customers who want to get a “won-lost” record among the attorneys listed on Avvo.

Track Record doesn’t try to do that; it does let a lawyer list the notable cases he or she handled, with information on outcomes or who they worked with. It also allows attorneys to list the lawyers representing the other side in some case.

“That’s another feature people wanted us to add,” said Britton. That creates a possible choice, later on when Avvo updates its search functions, to scour the site for all attorneys who worked for or against someone.

As with all else on Avvo, the Track Record lets the opposing attorneys post comments, so that the visitor to the site may get the two-sided version of how a case turned out.