Quite a bit of news out in the last few days regarding various lawyer “directories”…i.e. Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo. News stories here and here plus commentary from the venerable Chuck Newton here. The Martindale-Hubble piece discusses its waning usage. Avvo successfully dismissed the class-action lawsuit against it. Mr. Newton gives what I see as an accurate small firm perspective…i.e. these “fake” rating systems don’t help us. The personal touch with your referral sources is what brings in the business. We’ve written about Martindale-Hubbell before here. Apparently there’s still some benefit for the big firms but even it appears to be waning. I’ll say this, at least I can find myself on Avvo…I’m no where to be found on M-H and I am a licensed attorney in the State of Illinois.
In the Chicago area we have the Sullivan’s Law Directory which lists lawyers with practice areas and contact information. I used to get these but no longer. I do think they at least attempt to include all lawyers whether you’re a subscriber or not. In IL the Supreme Court lists all lawyers on the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary website…that’s what I use to look-up lawyers.
