Avvo

1/22/17
You are not able to leave a negative review for a lawyer on avvo. I hired a Andy Williams with Antiphon law office in Green Bay WI and I hired him based off this scam website. The lawyer was awful. It was a child custody case. He NEVER filed paperwork he stated he would file against my ex, six months into the case and important papers had not been filed. Other paperwork that had been filed was not filed properly and the judge informed my lawyer of this four months after the paperwork was filed. This paperwork was contempt of court and notice to produce documents. Very important paperwork for my defense and not done or done improperly. I went 4 weeks with no return phone call or email. He never returned any phone calls or emails to the GAL. He did not want to fight for my case and what i wanted but wanted me to agree with my ex and give my ex what he wanted. I tried to write a negative review of him on avvo and they would not publish it. I put details and facts like the review guideline states and they still declined to publish it. Then I read on another website that avvo rates the lawyers based on what the lawyers put in their bio and if the lawyers have a credit card on file. After hiring this lawyer and then finding bad reviews of him on other websites I now believe that. I have now spent double the money hiring someone else to try to fix my case. Its a nightmare. I would never recommend this avvo website or this lawyer. Big waste of time and money.

I left a review of a terrible DC/MD lawyer named Mary Paloger on the AVVO site. The review was submitted, approved and posted. Several days later, they took the post down citing that I didn't indicate that I had hired. I resubmitted the review and cited that I hired her and gave examples. Then declined saying that "Simply accused Mary Paloger of criminal activity or unethical behavior without providing factual details."

I wrote the following to their corporate office through the contact page...
"I have now submitted two reviews of Mary Paloger. The first was approved, then later denied when Mary complained. I sent another with your suggestions and edits - and then it was deemed "Simply accused Mary Paloger of criminal activity or unethical behavior without providing factual details." Since when did I have to become a lawyer to leave a review. Your site is misrepresenting the reason that this exist. If AVVO is simply going to function as "Linked-In" you should advertise as such or partner with them. I will leave another review later. However, if that is also denied after following your site rules... I will then take my complaints about Mary Paloger and AVVO to twitter, Reddit, and the web. Not a threat, just attempting to be more transparent than AVVO. Your choice."

Review I posted for lance belsome that avvo deleted:

Lance Belsome was our attorney on two separate legal matters in 2013. He abandoned the second case which was medical malpractice smack in the middle. He charged upwards of 40,000 dollars and refused to return the funds after turning the case in on itself. We lost the ability to secure a dentist to complete the work and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation. A previous case he kept half of the 25,000 and no work was done that he could show us. He sent emails to the opposing attorney with me copied on them mocking my requests for compensation. He during many phone conversations made inappropriate requests to come to my apartment and for me to pose nude for a sculpture which forced me to sever contact. He kept insisting he come over to my apartment in Venice and make me "warm chicken salad." He's so repulsive. He has made threats if I repeat those things he said to me. He had signed declarations from psychiatrists sourcing my disabilities and my level of social sophistication and still tried to pressure me into things I felt uncomfortable with. He would curse at me when I would call him. Horrible verbal assaults that I still feel some level of trauma from. His involvement in our life, specifically my life, has proven to be catastrophic. The money paid to him along with his poor handling of our case is now a primary reason I cannot seek the medical care I so desperately need.

I had two cases one for personal injury with nater law firm attorney Fanny and Raymond sotomayor and after they handled my case for almost four years they abandoned my case a week before the trial I also had a child support case who the opposing attorney craig Bourne delayed the case for 3 years and a half and won after lying to the court officer and after I provided all the evidence you can imagine 47 pages of evidence still this avvo site even refused to file a complaint against this people don't waste your time they all stick together most are friends and it doesn't matter how obvious your evidence is these scum bags will help each other and protect themselves, stay away they are extremely corrupted.

This site is a complete fraud and scam. I'm a lawyer who had an incredibly terrible review posted about me that was phony and anonymous. I've asked every client I've had in the last 2 years if they posted it and all said no. AVVO claims the review was posted 9 months ago, which is a lie. I was solicited by their high pressure salesmen and women to join them to clean up the bad review. I disputed the review and they took it down. Then they signed me up and took my money. As soon as they got my money they put the bad review up again. I asked a real client to write a review on me and he did. A very positive one, but AVVO rejected it for unknown reasons. I tried canceling them and told them they were not authorized to bill any more charges on my credit card. But they ignored me and keep running $100 per month charges that are unauthorized. I'm reporting them for credit card fraud to the Seattle King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office for investigation. They refuse to take down fake negative reviews to extort money out of lawyers. Then they empty your bank account. The site is a total fraud and scam.

Yeah, I hear all of you complaining and they're all legitimate complaints. AVVO isn't a good place to hire an attorney but it is a really good place to get some good, free legal advice. Over the years I've asked a LOT of questions and the answers usually are very helpful. I, too, made a mistake and hired an attorney from the ratings and got royally burned. Yvette Banker from Arizona, usually does probate, guardianship, conservatorship. She did the old 'bait and switch' where she said only $500 retainer until I signed the contract and all of a sudden, the case was "very complicated and (she) needs another $2500 immediately." Even though I kept telling her I needed to make the case go away, get it dismissed, she kept saying "private fiduciary." I finally got nasty and told her she was to do what I tell her. She continued to screw the case up so I fired her before we even got to court. Arizona adult guardianship court and court appointed lawyers are predators personafied. They are only in it to take the person's estate away and line their own pockets. Two other AVVO attorneys to avoid is Joseph Boyle and Shad Blackford. Imagine why they would be putting a 91 year old through hell just so they can steal the person's estate! They are real bastards!

Avvo claims that you can write a question and have attorneys answer it, so when I did just that, a black attorney sent a scathing, highly racist attack against me and my character. When a black family attacked me in the parking lot, and me being a disabled 52 year old white woman, this black attorney said twice that I had an "irrational fear of blacks", and he did to me exactly what the black family had done. He attacked me when I wasn't doing anything wrong. When I left a return message to him, Avvo refused to put it up. When I reviewed him on his page, Avvo denied it. So, that black attorney could insult, falsely accuse, and belittle me in the most racist, horrible manner, but Avvo felt I couldn't say anything in my defense. They're frauds. I've never gone to them that I actually found a lawyer worth having. They're one sided, like the Board of Professional Responsibility, which is lawyers judging lawyers and always exonerating them. Avvo is a waste of space for anyone who isn't a lawyer.

Low quality website that doesn't allow honest negative reviews about lawyers. Their goal is to get lawyers to pay them so that negative reviews are being taken down. Don't trust their ratings

There are attorneys on this site with high (5-star!) reviews, and it is so dreadfully misleading that I had to find another venue to post the TRUTH! So here it is, I believe that these attorneys are all colleagues and post various bogus "reviews" for eachother. Either that or they are paying off (writing money off their bills?!) clients to submit positive reviews?! A pay off is illegal, but attorneys are the most criminal people I've encountered and I teach criminal youth. Wow AVVO is disgusting with its faux information and their unwillingness to post negative reviews even though I submitted it twice and it contained only facts-no name calling, no low blows-straight facts (like Steven Dinneen took 9 (NINE!) months (MONTHS!) to return a call to me. He's been milking my family for over FIVE YEARS and I'm still not divorced. I have, however, spent 44THOUSAND dollars defending myself against false allegations he's convinced my Ex husband to create against me. He's lost every allegation. Because they're lies. LIES! In addition his performance in court made me embarrassed for him. Literally, my cat could have questioned me harder than he did. I didn't even get nervous. He's an incompetent person. There now I've said the truth and not in a nice way like I did to AVVO. Too bad you didn't post my kind review AVVO. Too bad you're a corrupt entity helping leeches maintain their shady business. Karma is real even if you don't believe in it. It's just a matter of time.

They are in cahoots with lawyers. Pray to god. Don't waste your time with them. When you tell god about them and the lawyers, you get satisfaction. They have no souls. Wicked begot wicked

THEIR REVIEWS ARE ONLY LIES! I hired an attorney following these website reviews and it was a terrible mistake! Now I'm trying to review this attorney with them and noticed that the people purchase their GOOD REVIEWS! IT DOESNT ALLOW ME TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT OR WRITE A REVIEW.