Avvo's new competitor
It has been a few weeks since I mentioned Avvo, the controversial Seattle online attorney rating service that was promptly sued after its debut in June.
Now, it turns out that Avvo will be facing some competition from an Arlington, Va.-based startup called HireTrade that has created a "legal marketplace" in which attorneys can post online profiles and clients can attempt to find attorneys to work on their cases.
For now, the company is focusing on the legal markets in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia, but it plans to expand to other geographic areas in the future. HireTrade says its HourlyValue Ratings System taps the knowledge of clients to rate attorneys, a method that it believes is more effective than a 1 to 10 rating scale like what Avvo employs. (HireTrade says it will not post a rating of an attorney until it accumulates three projects/reviews of the attorney.)
At the present time, HireTrade's database does not appear to be as robust as Avvo's. I searched for three different attorney names and did not get a result or an attorney rating. (Similar searches on Avvo returned hundreds of attorneys.)
Still, I asked HireTrade Chief Executive Neil Sandhu how his company is different from Avvo. Here's what he said:
We think that existing professional ratings systems, including most numerical ratings systems, result in arbitrary values as it is impossible for a numerical algorithm to really capture every single nuance of a professional's background or decide what is the correct weight to place on different items of information such as experience, education, etc. (not to mention the fact that it appears that some of these systems merely assign higher scores to those professionals who take the time to fill out their profiles in more detail). Thus, meaningful comparisons are difficult to draw from the numerical values that result.
Furthermore, there is very little actual intrinsic value in any number generated by such a system.
And he continued:
But what does a 5.0, 7.5, or 10 really signify when it comes to the seller of a service and, even if a numerical system was somehow perfect at capturing and interpreting data, can you really effectively compare someone who has a 8.8 to someone who has a 9.5--what if the person with an 8.8 has worked on more difficult matters and the person with the 9.5 has worked a long time and done very well with less difficult work? When the service is at the heart of what is being sold, we think an entirely different system must be used.
Those are also some of the arguments made in the lawsuit against Avvo.
Posted by document.writeln(showE2("johncook","seattlepi.com","John Cook"))John Cook
John Cook at August 27, 2007 11:35 a.m.Category: Avvo
Comments
#48664Posted by unregistered user at 8/27/07 8:33 p.m.hey. i told those guys to turn their site into a myspace for lawyers but nooooo. what do i know
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#48671Posted by unregistered user at 8/27/07 9:31 p.m.Avvo's primary competition is certainly their own misguided idea and the shark who pounced on their inane offering.
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Mark Osborne on 21 Feb 12Should I Take a New Hampshire Field Sobriety Test? New Hampshire Field Sobriety Tests (FST's) Everyone has an opinion about Field Sobriety Tests ("FST's"). Police, prosecutors, and other members of the law enforcement community will likely tell you that FST's are the best way to determine if someone is impaired by drugs or alcohol, short of a breath test. You may be arrested for DUI if the police believe that you did not perform well on the field sobriety tests where you walk the line and touch your nose, then we look to see why. We inspect the surface area where you were told to do the tests. We inquire as to whether the officer properly instructed you on how to take these "tests". We inquire as to whether you have any medical conditions that would have hindered your ability to perform these roadside contortions. Most defense attorneys will tell you FST's are the biggest joke going and that their results are unscientific, unreliable, and mislead judges and juries all over the country. Where do Justin and Mark stand on this issue? Well, their answer is simple - it doesn't really matter what police and lawyers thinks about FST's. What matters is this: Does your JUDGE buy into the FST propaganda. If you are in front of a judge who is skeptical about FST's, then it may not matter how "badly" you did on them. On the other hand, if you have a judge who thinks that FST's are as reliable and precise as the Hubbell telescope, then all the fuss about their unreliability isn't going to matter either. Should I Take The Field Sobriety Test? As a rule, Mark and Justin would recommend that you not take them - period. After all, if you don't take any FST's, then you won't have to worry about what your judge thinks about them. If he doesn't have any FST's to consider during your trial, then they can't be used against you. Exercise Your Rights, You Can Simply Say No! As a rule of thumb, if the police officer stopped you for s
