Anna Bakhash

This message simply means that I refused to participate in Avvo’s rating system or be listed on its website, however they refuse to delist me, even after I’ve spent significant time and effort asking them to do so. Avvo’s policy is never to take an attorney off the service, even if they do not agree with its methods and do not want to be associated with them.

      In fact, I have nothing to hide. I claimed my profile on Avvo because I wanted to answer legal questions, in the hopes of being helpful to potential customers. When I claimed my profile my rating was 6.1 (good). I have no disciplinary action against me, I treat my clients with respect and I strive to provide the best and most thoughtful representation that I possibly can. I contacted customer service, and they explained that if I fill in the profile, the rating will go up, so I did, however, the rating stayed the same. I did not believe that Avvo’s rating was commensurate with the way I run my practice, my experience or know how. Therefore, I scrubbed my profile and asked Avvo to remove it completely. Inexplicably, Avvo downgraded my profile to a 5.9 (average) instead, in the span of a half hour.

      Upon doing further research into Avvo’s “proprietary algorithm”, I have come to the conclusion that the service is opaque and misleading and does more harm than good to consumers. Avvo itself acknowledges that the ratings systems “do not evaluate their knowledge of the law, past performance on individual cases, personality, or communication skills. These are elements that the Avvo Rating cannot evaluate, but can be better described in the client reviews and peer endorsements found on an attorney’s profile.” 

       From my research, a lawyer can only raise their ranking by asking all of their friends to leave them reviews. If the profile becomes stale, the rankings drop. I do not wish to spend my time updating my profile and asking for favors from my colleagues. I believe it is better spent serving customers, staying abreast of the law, managing my practice and providing the highest possible standard of service that I can.