Avvo

I hired a lawyer based on reviews from this site (he was rated a 9.3!) Well, it turns out that not only was this lawyer Setlak difficult to work with, but had a major conflict of interest with the opposing lawyer. I asked him several times if he had a personal relationship with this other attorney because he was so accomodating to her. During my time with him and in the midst of a contentious legal war, he actually peer endorsed the other attorney (and my case was adversely affected due to bad advice and guidance from my own lawyer). I tried sending an objective, but negative review and it was rejected. DO NOT HIRE AN ATTORNEY BASED ON REVIEWS FROM AVVO!

Avvo will not allow sincere reviews of bad lawyers, thus misleading the people considering to hire legal help.

Ask a lawyer, get an automated answer with no follow-up. Like I haven't already read the suggested sites. This site went downhill fast.

Avvo blocked my review for Attorney Mario Cappogrosso. I wrote about my experience with this attorney as follows:
"I wouldn't recommend this attorney to anybody.
I applied for his services at Coney Island NY DMV on seat belt traffic violation case. Mr. Capogrosso collected money from me and never showed up again (before, during, after the hearing) nor returned my phone calls. My case was failed.
I DO NOT WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO SUFFER THE SAME.
PLEASE BE AWARE."

Attorneys on the website write their own bogus reviews-Beware Fraud Alert

Yeah if you ever wanted to consider if this website has any legitimacy that headline alone should drive you far, far away. Avvo knows the bad lawyers on its website write their own reviews and don't do anything about it.

I hired a lawyer, James Kosnett, who did a terrible job in every sense of the word-ignored my phone calls, showed no evidence of any work on the case
Posted a negative review to warn potential victims. It was on Avvo for about two months before it was "contested". Avvo wanted to know if I was a real client (I submitted a retainer to prove that I was). They refuse to put back the review, and subsequently deleted a couple of current negative reviews.

Then I noticed within the same day several positive reviews pour in for the attorney. They all appeared very fake. Obviously with a couple of bad reviews for the attorney it was a shameless and fraudulent attempt by him and Avvo to cover for his latest unethical and poor performance.

Avvo was a joke to begin with, but now crossing over into fraud is a whole other ball game. I wouldn't recommend the website nor anyone else with perfect reviews

This website is a TOTAL JOKE! This organization allows the lawyers to post their own FAKE reviews. Also when disgruntled cliuents try and post real reviews, AVVO allows the same INCOMPETENT lawyers to have the REAL NEGATIVE reviews deleted. This joke of a site (AVVO) does this because this is the ONLY way most of these incompetent lawyers can try and dupe people into doing business with them!

I know this because I worked with one of these incompetent attorneys for a very brief period and 8 of the 10 positive reviews she wrote herself using phony email addresses. The whole website concept of this is comical!

AVVO is not an Objective WEBSITE... I too have had much trouble in getting AVVO to approve ANY less than positive review from me of my former attorney. AVVO kept rejecting my reviews. Then they finally posted a revised review only after days of back and forth responses between them, me and a 3rd party investigative board... stating we're sorry our team made a mistake. Then almost instantly after my review was posted... they must of notified the attorney... The attorney was allowed to post a very FALSE and degrading of me, Response on the AVVO review I left.( He also called and texted me threats) I calmly submitted my response on the AVVO site, to this attorneys attack of me, pointing out all the inaccuracies and providing proof his statements were wrong, and again AVVO sent me rejections of my response! AVVO now states they DO not allow Reviewers to respond to Lawyers response! They allowed the attorney to post a response that was 3-4 times the length of my review... must of been 3000 words. Clients just cant win with these folks... very, very Biased in favor of its attorneys. I understand AVVO gets compensation from these attorneys that it gives biased Ratings/scores/reviews for. I don't understand why an Attorney General has not stepped in and fully Investigated this Clearly Biased company. AVVO has harmed so many people who use this site to make life changing decisions of what Lawyer to choose. I know first hand, I used their site to pick this attorney 2 years ago. He was rated 9.4( Outstanding) on their site, with 5 positive reviews( no negative), turned out to be one of the worst Lawyers ever!

'Atty" Matthew Obermeier has his 1 star reviews taken off and replaced with five 5 STAR reviews! The worst "atty"! He's a liar! He's been arrested for a POCS, FAILURE TO STOP & RENDER AID, and DUI. Don't waste your $$ or time! He has a number of legal malpractice lawsuits filed against him and his partners! Tape him and the courts! Btw, he's in San Antonio, TX! Worst atty ever!

The premise is a good idea, but thinking logically - if an attorney has time to troll the internet to develop his business, how good is he? I was blind-sighted by a situation on a Friday night regarding consumer rights and a credit reporting agencies control under the FCRA to release that info to my bank at my request to complete a business transaction. I received a response right away from an attorney who was rude, very short sighted demonstrating an inability to understand basic finance, and when I looked the guy up - his specialty is defending DUI's. I gave him a "me thinks not" review because he was demeaning and it was almost as if he was looking to see himself post. Monday rolls around and I called a real attorney who was retired, but specialized in FCRA, I got an email/phone number for the key executive of the CRA and within 10 minutes the problem was resolved no muss/no fuss. No abusive language, no public demeaning, no nonsense. I tried to delete my question which Avvo does not allow and a second attorney who deals with bankruptcy's in another part of the country feeds of the first moron and continues the belittling of the question. It just seems like the attorney's at Avvo are the bottom of the barrel/ambulance chasers that have a very light caseload. I have to wonder if the number of questions answered and the fact that only positive reviews are allowed... work with the ranking algorithm - why would attorney's who do not specialize in the field where the question lies? Sounds like the psychiatrist conducting open heart surgery. Both are doctor - why can't they do the same thing?

I had a family court issue.

Asked a question got 5 different answers (Avvo), apparently all of them were wrong.

I ended up using a lawyer in Portland Maine based on the reviews form Avvo.

The lawyer never got me a day in court but spent my money doing frivolous filings (motions) that got us to a pre-trial meeting with the judge.

The judge literally laughed at my lawyer and I, told us there will basically be no court trial and that took 9 months and 6000 dollars.

Foolishly i was going to file a contempt of court but was quoted thousands more, at that point I gave up knowing it was going to be another costly deadend.

This lawyers office has 39 reviews and a 10 rating.

Maine's premier civil and criminal litigator. Named to "Best Lawyers in America." Only Maine lawyer who is a Director of the "National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers." Named to "New England Super Lawyers" for 10 consecutive years.

I used the junior partner and he was advised by the senior one.

I don't want to name... names as i don't want to be sued by them.

Avvo is a Rip off, ask a question then they tell you to speak to a lawyer, find their lawyer, and good bye money and the fallout from my case is I am set to lose another $30K..

In looking for a lawyer that was outside my referral resources, I turned to Avvo with the hopes of finding some legitimate reviews of lawyer reviews. I hired a lawyer who had great reviews on Avvo. My experience with this lawyer was less than great. We eventually concluded our business and I thought to share my experience details on Avvo. I was wrong. Although I was very garefull to express no opinion about his performance but stick only to the facts, these "facts" were less than rosy, so Avvo kept rejected the review stating they "did not comply with the review fairness policy of Avvo." After reading the review over and over, I could not figure out what specifically, they did not like, so I would resubmit (keeping the basic information the same but very watered down). Each time it continued to be rejected, so eventually I emailed Avvo support and asked them what specifically about my review violated their "fair review policy". After a week I did receive a response where they stated that they apologies and they rejected the review in error as it violated no known policy and they assured me it would be posted (which it was - for a short while). I'm no looking for another lawyer and thought, "let me check Avvo". Even better, to help me determine if I should take any of their reviews seriously, let me check my review status from 4-months ago. GONE. He has 50 "positive reviews" not a single review less than 4 stares. AVVO--- he does have one 2-star... Mine... I can submite is a 5th time if you like.
Bottom line... they are paid advertisement... not a true or acurate depiction of anything.

Two highly rated Avvo Attorney's, one allowed himself to be retained by a legal entity with whom I have an adversarial relationship, refusing to return legal documents he acknowledges I dropped off,. Citing himself as "believing"them as belonging to his client
A second. Whom I later retained to take action against this same adversarial legal opponent, panicked me into signing a stipulation releasing my opponent from liability (I recorded him stating this NOT to be the case), requiring me to furnish this same adversary with details of overseas employment and living arrangements (!) whereupon I rescinded his retainer
In spite of this. He is is filing OSC to remove his firm from the case without my consent (though I had already terminated contract), referencing my "chaotic mood swings", a tacit testament to a psychiatric disorder (Bipolar Disorder) with which I am NOT currently diagnosed
I am suppressing their names for fear of further retaliation, but will provide them in confidence
Email: *******@caa.columbia.edu

I found attorney Barry Janay on Avvo. Called his office and schedule a phone consultation.
The day and time I was supposed to have the consultation nobody contacted me so, I called his office. The receptionist asked me if I wanted to schedule another appointment for the consultation with attorney Barry Janay.
After I answer affirmative I got another appointment but the same like the first time nobody contacted me again. Called the low firm and again I was asked if I wanted to schedule another consultation. I was already fed up with this kind of unprofessional way of treating a potential client. So, since I can not trust this attorney after all my answer was a categoric"No".
I put an review on Avvo about this attorney and one week later I received an email from Avvo informing me that my review doesn't meet their standards without saying Why?
Was a legitimate review where I share my experience with that attorney.
This attorney should not book appointments if he is not able to honor them. We all have a busy schedule and no time for this nonsense.
So, Avvo proves that is not a company you can trust. Just another Avartise company. Did

Biased platform for the benefit of attorneys and not consumers. This company only posts positive reviews and will not accept negative reviews. I wrote a fact-based truthful review of my experience with an attorney, citing case filings and other reliable and verifiable sources and AVVO still denied the review. Ive since read on many other websites testimonials that justify my exact claim. This is a very wreckless business practice as it misleads consumers who are looking for good, reputable attorneys to hire for legal representation. Retainer fees can range 3k, 5k and upwards. There should be a class action suit filed against AVVO by all the consumers who used the AVVO platform to consult/hire an attorney that theyre positively advocating in exchange for subscribing to their services. Truth is, the consumer will never see any negative experiences voiced by consumers. Not only is this misleading but its corrupt and scandalous. After my truthful fact-based review and loss of 3k to an incompetent attorney, heres what AVVO responded: We are writing to inform you that your review of Sarah C******* was not approved because it does not meet our community guidelines.