Robert Ambrogi Blog
With all the attention paid to last month’s launch of the lawyer-ranking site Avvo, it was only a matter of time before copycat sites began to appear. One such site, About My Lawyer, launched Friday, and it is so amateurishly executed that I cannot tell whether it is legitimate or a joke. The announcement of the new site, datelined San Juan, P.R., says, in part:
“Today begins in the world the new era in the justice. We the people have our website (aboutmylawyer.org), right now we can express, evaluate, and comment widely about the legal services that we contract. We can share information and the different point of view of everyone.”
If the announcement reads like mangled English, wait until you visit the site, where there are statements such as, “The clients can speech about the lawyer service widely. (Some restrictions can apply).” Much of the site’s copy reads as though it was written in another language and run through Babel Fish.
The apparent concept of the site is to rank lawyers using the “T.L.E.M.” or “Traffic Light Evaluation Method.” That’s right — every lawyer gets a green, yellow or red light. Lawyers who register with the site are allowed to respond to comments posted about them. Unregistered lawyers automatically get a red light. The site also promises to list the 100 best and 100 worst lawyers every six months.
There are no rankings or listings on the site so far. The only way to register, either as a client or as a lawyer, is to send an e-mail to a Yahoo.com e-mail address. Little information is provided about the company behind the site, although it does provide this boast: “In our mangement we don’t have Lawyer’s, and we don’t accept any person associated to Lawyer’s to work with us.” The domain name is registered to Eduardo Ojeda in Aguirre, P.R.
As I say, I almost want to believe the site is a practical joke, but I am afraid I would be wrong.