With so many online legal services, how can you know who to trust? Well, we took the liberty to thoroughly examine one of them – Avvo – and we’re about to debunk every little detail regarding this online marketplace for legal services.
Avvo comes from the Italian word avvocato, meaning – lawyer. It’s an online legal service marketplace that stores legal information and attorney referrals to potential clients.
Avvo promotes attorneys by ratings, provides information regarding their disciplinary actions, and real reviews by their clients. Essentially, Avvo is a place where clients can hire a fitting attorney based on ratings.
In this text, we elaborate on Avvo’s reliability as a place where you can meet potential clients or hire an attorney. But, before we get to the good part, our first stop is Avvo’s ratings.
The Avvo Ratings
Avvo has an embedded algorithm that generates attorney ratings. Most of the information Avvo gathers to generate the ratings is either available online or passed by other attorneys. Based on that, there are ratings or marks on a scale from 1 – 10. Basically, with these ratings, Avvo warns users to pay attention to the meaning of the following marks:
- 0-1.9: Extreme Caution
- 0-2.9: Strong Caution
- 0-3.9: Caution
- 0-4.9: Concern
- 0-5.9 Average
- 0-6.9: Good
- 0-7.9: Very Good
- 0-8.9: Excellent
- 0-10.0: Superb
Avvo decodes the marks and suggests that if clients have a delicate matter to cover, they shouldn’t consider lawyers under 6. Also, potential clients should avoid attorneys under caution by all means.
Besides Avvo’s own rating, we will also scale their reliability from the client’s and lawyer’s perspectives.
But first – let’s see if Avvo is actually legit.
Is Avvo Legit?
This question bothers both clients and attorneys, but the answer is simple – yes.
Avvo operates by setting questionnaires to clients to leave a review about their legal service. Avvo constantly collects these surveys to come up with a rating. The point here is that Avvo’s reviews are legitimate client testimonials regarding the legal service provided by a lawyer or a law firm.
Point number two is that lawyers can’t remove bad feedback or clients, which also proves that Avvo is not only an advertising company but a review site that helps clients find the fittest lawyer for their case.
These two points establish Avvo’s motive – to help clients find a reliable lawyer without having to search high and low. But, we can’t ignore the fact that Avvo can be manipulated. Below, we will discuss if you should trust Avvo from the client’s and lawyer’s perspectives.
Should You Trust Avvo? The Client’s Perspective
The answer to this question from the client’s perspective is debatable. Getting a clear answer to the question depends entirely on the client’s search intention for a lawyer. If they’re looking to find a client’s experience with lawyers, Avvo is an excellent terminus quo. However, those notions define the lawyer.
Bear in mind that in law, it’s the deed that speaks the loudest for an attorney, unlike other professions. Hence, the negative customer experiences mean nothing when it comes to quality work. In fact, legal companies don’t shy away from a bad review. Take Harvey Specter as a role model. Most partners hated working with him, but he was the best when it came to law. In real life – it’s pretty much the same.
A good rating, on the other hand, shouldn’t promise anything. The internet still allows possible manipulations when it comes to ratings. Therefore, don’t entirely base your assumption on online reviews, as it might be bots writing the reviews sometimes.
The best way to find a perfect attorney is to choose one at Avvo, and then “consult” with Google. There’s nothing better than good ol’ research on a person before choosing to collaborate.
If there’s something you need to know about the person, there’s no way for Google to hide it. Make sure you search for “reviews” when you type in the person.
Also, when looking for an attorney, always consider that there are newbies who can’t raise the rating immediately. Fortunately, Avvo displays the date when an attorney got admitted to the state bar. Judging by the date, you can scale the reliability of the attorney.
Should you Trust Avvo Reviews? The Lawyer’s Perspective
Lawyers are the driving force of Avvo, and for that reason – we must consider their perspective too. They are affected by Avvo’s ratings as much as the potential clients as it mirrors their reputation. Therefore, it’s essential to learn how to interpret Avvo’s ratings if you’re a novice lawyer.
Bad ratings happen and will happen as long as there’s a pool where clients can vote or leave feedback. However, there is a pivotal moment that lawyers must take when it comes to criticism. Always listen to the feedback of your clients attentively.
If it’s constructive feedback we’re talking about, admit the mistake, and learn how to fix and avoid it. Otherwise, there’s no point in trusting everything you see online. Especially not in the corporate world. Avvo can be abused by bots who will leave bad reviews only to ruin a certain reputation. Take it as the contemporary witch hunt.
So, the only concern lawyers should have is to maximize the effort they put into their dainty and minimize the hear-say around.
Lawyers Still Need to Focus on Avvo Scores & Reviews
Lawyers have lots of privileges with Avvo if they want to enlarge their clientele. One of the leading privileges is if they happen to score a higher rank – they can easily develop a client’s network. Every beginning is difficult, but having a high rank can bring a fortune. Just by reaching a rating above 6, lawyers are already in the big game. Clients will pop up with requests as they will find them more reliable.
Clients, on the other hand, have the privilege to learn more about Avvo’s lawyers. Also, they can express their opinion in an environment that listens. Rest assured that once you put up your review on the site, the lawyer cannot take it down – Avvo protects the testimonials with its policy. With it, they can warn other people about the lawyer’s quality and prevent further scams.
