AvvoReviews 417

We had a very poor experience with AVVO. In the many months that we advertised with AVVO, we did NOT GET ONE viable lead! Many of the phone calls were from out of state and many more were from telemarketers. During that time, we received multiple calls from AVVO trying to get us to advertise more lawyers in our office so we were constantly getting sold to. In addition, when we spoke with them the end of Nov. To get a few more days (into Dec.) to decide if we wanted to cancel, their customer service rep said yes but when we tried to cancel on Dec. 3, they said we had to pay through Jan. (per their 30 day cancellation policy). This is not at all what we agreed to over the phone.

A family member hired what turned out to be a totally incompetent, and possibly fraudulent attorney in Bellevue, WA named Jenny Cochrane. She not only reneged on her $1,500 "flat fee" agreement with him, she then had the nerve to charge him an additional $1,000, then called him two weeks after taking the extra money and told him he was..."on his own..." and there was nothing more she could do. A total lying, incompetent scumbag - stay away. This is one situation where you are better off representing yourself! I was able to verify via third parties that 80% of her positive reviews are fakes, either from her (using fake email addresses) or phony "clients." She even faked a positive review from the family member she essentially stole money from! The one posted negative review is real, but probably won't last since AVVO.com is a scam website designed to dupe consumers into thinking their positive ratings are legitimate... Most of the lawyers on the site and AVVO itself are a complete joke!

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.

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!

Based on AVVO data - or the lack thereof, I hired what turned out to be the most flakey attorney - too sad to even explore here. Advocacy was definitely for self rather than client. Tried to leave a honest review of the bizarre and unprofessional behavior patterns without opening the door for a lawsuit - since lawyers love to sue, regardless of the veracity of a claim. AVVO helps them by refusing the review. And, the website appears to advise the attorney. I keep getting emails - none of which I open - from this attorney. They are timed with the AVVO emails. She probably thinks this is a game and that she is 'winning'. But, in fact, the loss is all hers. I only lost money, not my mind. AVVO is useless for the consumer. I would imagine other similar reviews were likely rejected - ones that would have prevented me from hiring her. But, this is the extent of time and effort I am going to expend. I tried to warn people. I have wasted enough time on this miscreant. That is sad, but true.

I asked for help to get these two attorney's, Robert Marshall and Jay Finnecy, to stop harassing me. I was looking for advice on a misdemeanor mistake that I had made a year ago, and these two bantered back and forth bad-mouthing me for two days. I asked support for help, and they apologized on their behalf. They also said that they would handle it "internally," which basically just meant they just deleted all of their unnecessary, antagonistic, and rude comments. Instead of helping me, they just covered up the situation. It was my first experience with Avvo, and I don't think I'll ever be using it again.

I was unaware that as a user for this site, NOT a lawyer, you cannot cancel your profile. I posted something I thought was between me and a lawyer and it was a bit of personal identifying info. I want to cancel, but even live chat is live, just email. I have 2 brain diseases and it is my fault for not being able to notice what I was doing at the time, but the site she allow visitors to remove thier questions and cancel thier profile, just like anywhere else in the web. I REALLY don't like this.

I hired attorneys crews and pesquera and also payas and payas in central fl, i found them at this avvo site with good reviews, what a joke, the first law firm neglected my case for almost two years and the second one payas, their assistant always avoid my contact directly with the attorney, i had to fire both firms, what a waste! I try to post my negative reviews at avvo to help other people and they always reject them, thos avvo site is a scam just like those two firms, a total fraud.

Avvo did not allow me to review Debra Bland Koenig for absolutely no reason. There are other reviews for lawyers that are similar to my but mine was denied. Do not hire Debra Bland Koenig. She will take your money then will not communicate with you in person, via email or telephone. She is rude as is her staff. I paid her $2500 for grandparents rights and she has yet to obtain them and has allowed unethical behavior in her practice. I am a retired and still hardworking American who deserves to get what I paid for per our contract and that hasn't happened.

Avvo began listing me on the site after I stopped practicing law to move into diffferent work. Now its call center regularly cold-calls my staff and bugs them to "claim my profile." The "profile" in question appears to be composed of automated public record searches and guesswork, and is largely wrong. Most notably, Avvo is advertising to the world that I am still a practicing attorney, and that I am a specialist in an area that does not accurately reflect what I did while in practice. There is no option for me to de-list the inaccurate information without "claiming" the profile by submitting additional information to Avvo and agreeing to its usage terms. I informed one of Avvo's cold-callers that I no longer practice, but the company has taken no action to correct its mistakes.

Avvo to me is a fraud,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, perhaps fixed in many ways,,,,,,,, I rated a lawyer in La Quinta Ca... James Dunne... who was a bait and switch lawyer, hired him... he failed to show up at four court appearances,,,,,,,,,, sent a lawyer who did not know my case, four different ones,,,,,,,, in three months I had no correspondence but a new bill for over 13,000 I fired him... he put my case in Jeopardy according to the Judge... I sent in at least fifty reviews to Avvo and finally said little to nothing near the end, each time my review was denied,,,,,,,,,, you cannot give a negative and true report on this lawyer because it is blocked

DON'T TRUST THEM