Earlier today I blogged about Crikey's plan to rate Australian judges (see here), and now I've read about a site in the US designed to rate lawyers. What does this say about the public perceptions of the law and justice system?
Here is part of the story on Avvo.com:
A venture-capital backed Web site called Avvo.com that launches Tuesday claims to offer a "game-changing" alternative to the Yellow Pages for anyone interested in hiring a lawyer.
Avvo's plan is ambitious: to award a numeric score to every attorney in the United States, along with a profile, client recommendations and peer endorsements.
"It's the most critical piece of guidance that we provide," Mark Britton, a former vice president at Expedia who is Avvo's chief executive, said about the numeric score. "It's our assessment of how good a job that lawyer is going to do for you." Avvo says it has received $14 million in funding, including money from Benchmark Capital and Ignition Partners, co-founded by Microsoft alum and Avvo board member Brad Silverberg.
In tests, however, Avvo's pages seemed to be riddled with bizarre errors, profiles of attorneys who have been dead for more than a century, and inexplicable scores in which some felons received better ratings than law school deans and internationally renowned litigators.
...
U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, the magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School who has argued more than 25 cases before the Supreme Court, receives a mere 6.1 of 10 overall score. Barry Scheck, the famous member of O.J. Simpson's "dream team" (6.3), and Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig (6.3) don't fare much better.
But lawyers who have been convicted of serious crimes--including disbarred attorney Lynne Stewart, currently in prison for conspiracy to defraud the federal government--boast 6.5 ratings. Atlanta attorney Ulysses Ware, convicted of securities fraud in April, gets a 6.3 rating and is listed as an "active member in good standing" of the Georgia bar.
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