Lawyer and Law Firm Ratings

As consumers, we increasingly seek out information on the web regarding a potential purchase: new car comparisons, homes on the market in your area, digital camera price comparisons. During this information 'hunt' - we expect to find ratings and/or reviews. What did other people, experts or general consumers like me, think of a particular product?

Consumer or expert ratings and reviews on 'services' are also becoming increasingly available on the web. Sites like angieslist provide homeowners a way to both rate and review ratings on home service companies, like contractors, and plumbers.

Ratings and reviews for professional services, like legal services, lawyers and law firms, are starting to pop-up, but should we trust them? When we come across a lawyer or law firm rating, we want to know, what is the source of the rating? Is it a consumer like me rating a lawyer or a computer algorithm calculating a number?

Lawyers.com provides Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings. Peer Review Ratings, in its simplest form, are lawyers rating other lawyers on ethics and legal ability. The ratings process begins once a lawyer has been in practice 5 or more years and continues periodically over the course of a lawyer’s career. Lawyers take the Peer Review Ratings process seriously and Martindale-Hubbell has been providing the Peer Review Rating service to the legal profession for over 130 years. As a consumer, we can now benefit from it.

In December, Martindale-Hubbell announced it will be collecting and aggregating client reviews. This gives former clients of a firm the ability to rate the firm on service, value, experience, and more. Ultimately, the combination of Peer Reviews and Client Reviews could be a powerful indicator if a particular firm or lawyer is the right one for my legal situation. More to come -