Avvo Answers Allows Users to Assess the Qualifications of Lawyers and Quality of their Answers
Seattle, Wash — Avvo (www.avvo.com), the only website that rates and profiles every lawyer, today launched “Avvo Answers,” a free legal questions-and-answers forum that provides personalized answers to consumers’ specific legal questions. “Avvo Answers” is the only legal Q&A website where users can assess the qualifications of every lawyer who answers a question – through their Avvo Rating and Avvo Profile – and the quality of their answer through votes from the community of Avvo users. In addition, “Avvo Answers” lets consumers answer questions so that they can share their own experiences with others who are struggling with similar legal issues.
“Consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to research their legal issues before hiring an attorney. Avvo Answers provides a fast, free and easy way for consumers to get answers to their questions, and at the same time, provides them with even more information and guidance to help them choose the right lawyer,” said Mark Britton, Avvo CEO and a 15-year attorney who was previously general counsel at Expedia.com. “Avvo Answers also lets lawyers who relish being advocates demonstrate their expertise and share some initial guidance with consumers in need.”
The launch of “Avvo Answers” creates an online community focused exclusively on legal issues where consumers can ask specific, highly detailed questions – even anonymously to protect their privacy – or search a database of questions asked by others on a broad range of legal issues. Users can also be automatically notified when questions or answers are posted on specific topics of interest to them, or when a specific lawyer posts a new answer to any question. Answers can come from both lawyers and non-lawyers.
“Avvo Answers” is also the only legal Q&A forum that recognizes those lawyers who provide helpful answers as judged by the community of Avvo users. Lawyers can achieve different “levels” based on the quantity and quality of their answers, and that level is displayed together next to each answer they provide, as well as in their Avvo Profile.
In addition to being able to vote on the quality of an answer and view other people’s votes, consumers can assess the background of every lawyer who provides an answer by reviewing their Avvo Rating and Avvo Profile, which includes a lawyer’s professional experience, industry recognition, disciplinary sanctions, and client ratings. To make that easy for the consumer, a link to the lawyer’s Avvo Profile is displayed beside every answer.
“Several new clients have come to me through Avvo. In fact I got my first client the day I claimed my profile. I welcome new features that help clients and attorneys connect,” said Shelly Crocker, managing partner, Crocker Kuno PLLC and Resolve Legal PLLC, which specialize in commercial and consumer bankruptcy respectively. “Avvo Answers is a great forum for clients and lawyers to meet and exchange information. An attorney’s response to a question can give a client insight into that lawyer’s expertise and their level of concern for the client’s situation. Those should be important factors to them in choosing an attorney.”
Also today, Avvo released “Track Record,” a free and easy way for lawyers to showcase their best work and demonstrate their experience by posting cases and transactions to their Avvo profiles. “Track Record” is unique because it enables any lawyer who worked on a case to add co-counsel and opposing counsel to the case information, and provides every lawyer involved in the case equal opportunity to add comments and express their own perspectives. Over time, as more connections are built between lawyers and cases, Avvo users will be able to view an individual lawyer’s experience working with and against other lawyers.
About Avvo
Avvo is a lawyer search website that rates and profiles every attorney to help consumers find the right lawyer. In addition to detailed lawyer profiles, the free site includes the Avvo Rating, disciplinary sanctions and client ratings. Avvo gives every attorney a free online profile and an opportunity to give and receive peer endorsements. The website currently includes profiles and ratings on every licensed attorney in Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington and will be adding more states in 2008. Founded in early 2006, Avvo is privately held, with funding from private investors, Benchmark Capital and Ignition Partners. For more information, visit www.avvo.com.
