Avvo

I wrote this review after a jerk of a lawyer who argued with me after not answering a simple question that just became a law in California, regarding Real Estate License. He acted all tough because he's in another state. I tried to put a bad review and of course Avvo rejected it. Then I tried to put a positive review about a lawyer who went beyond anyone would to give me advice. He did it all for free, even when I tried to pay. He was a great human being before being being a great lawyer. Mr. Frederick M. Ray in City of Orange, CA. I tried to give him a great review and they turned it down. I have no idea why. Maybe Mr. Ray is no longer or never been part of Avvo. So ask yourselves this question. Why are good and bad reviews being turned down for the website? I didn't use any fowl language or anything that shouldn't be published anywhere. Yet they were. Why are only good reviews of paid lawyers being permitted on the website? Could it be 'conflict of interest'? I am asking that question. I have no evidence one way or the other. Yet something fishy is definitely going on with Avvo. That's for sure. If a review website doesn't let people put honest reviews, why are we using it? I sure don't anymore. All I ever get in the end is 'get an attorney from Avvo'. No thanks. I rather trust other reputable review sites to pick... I picked 2 specialty lawyers for 2 different cases from Yelp and it worked out just fine. Yelp let's me put all my reviews on their website. No Avvo, ever...

I always wonder why we cannot put 0 stars.
That website AVVO just protects lawyers and AVVO pretends to accept negative reviews but it is a lie.
As soon as you want to post a legitimate review they refuse by their continuous saying "you do not follow the guideline". Even if we do! So we realized that website is in fact made by Lawyers.
All the time, they attract clients by saying JUST UNDER THE NAME OF THE LAWYER, FREE CONSULTATION and when you call, they do not want to speak to you unless you pay, I call that false advertisement!

AVVO is like a gym membership that you never use. It takes your money every month and you don't get anything out of it. Not a single phone call in a year.

I'm surprised at the number of negative reviews from both potential clients and attorneys. I have used Avvo on numerous occasions to research legal issues which have come to light. For that I am thankful. I also research state law, etc concerning my issues. Because I am researching, I do feel Avvo is helpful. Yes, some attorney responses (Definitely not All) are assumptive and disrespectful. But I believe that is indicative of the Hubris which surrounds the Legal industry. There is always an area to respond to their comments.

That being said, I, as a potential client, do benefit from Avvo-as the responses help me to interpret the law- or opinion of the law. However, as an Attorney enlisting Avvo services, if I did not receive clients initiated by Avvo, I would be concerned. If an Attorney is not receiving clients, it could be due to rudeness. It also could be due to people, like me, who cannot afford more than the free consultation, and are trying to determine if they have any legal premise to spend discretionary income on a proposed injustice (of which there are many, enforceable if you have money)

I think the issue is, to whom does Avvo want to market?

I have used Avvo in the past to assist me with contacting an attorney to represent me in a legal matter. Recently I attempted to use it again, at which time one of their recommended attorneys never contacted after I made direct contact with him via his website. Avvo contacted me about a week later to inquire about my experience with their recommended attorney and to ask if I would write a review. I chose to do so in order to politely inform other potential clients of my experience with the Avvo-recommended attorney. However, in spite of repeated attempts, Avvo refused to post my review. Of note: Their recommended attorney is a 5-star client of Avvo and I rate them with only 1 star. It seems to me that Avvo is protecting their 5-star client by not allowing me to post my negative experience with their client. This action feels dishonest and slimy because it appears that Avvo will only allow positive reviews of their clients. If this is true, it begs the question: What good are ANY of the Avvo attorneys if all of their reviews are possibly manipulated? As you can see by many of the other reviews on this site, I am not the only person with this same issue. Please understand that I am reviewing Avvo and not all of their attorneys.

I wrote a negative review about an unethical, incompetent attorney, William Bruzzo, that was based on my personal experience and true. Avvo posted it first. Two days later, after the corrupt William Bruzzo noticed it and complained about it, Avvo removed it, saying that it violated their guidelines! I posted it again three more times and each time Avvo rejected it. There was nothing in my review that was outside their guidelines. They lied and they knew it. They posted it the first time, but basically since William Bruzzo complained about it, then my review became outside their guidelines! I told them that they get paid by attorneys to post only good FAKE/PAID reviews for them and their site is only an advertising tool for attorneys and not trusted. People should not choose attorneys based on FAKE Avvo 5-star reviews. Knowing this incompetent, corrupt attorney, and having the first-hand experience with him, and finding out that some other people have the same type of experience with this guy, and knowing that he posts fake reviews for himself, on every site, and then of course seeing only 5-star reviews on Avvo about him, is the best proof that Avvo is not a reliable source for choosing the right attorney. The attached photo shows my review for William Bruzzo that Avvo removed.

AVO is incompetent loser lawyers helping other incompetent loser lawyers. It's scumbag lawyers giving other scumbag lawyers 5 star reviews. I've seen lawyers who I think never win a case with a 5 star review! How does that happen? AVO is a complete scam designed to play off lackluster lawyer's egoes. AVO is a joke.

I'm a lawyer re-entering the work force full time, (after taking several years off to raise my kids & care for a seriously ill parent.) I've done private consulting work, but now I'm resuming my legal career and sending out my resumes for full time work.

I had never heard of AVVO until I saw my name, along with a middling review of my legal career. Based on what? They never contacted me for any information about anything, such as the consulting work I did during my 7 year absence from practicing law.

There are NO client reviews of any kind, nor have there ever been any grievances filed against me. So I'm mystified as to what their "ratings" are based on. So their reviews are worthless. But it gets WORSE!

THE SCAM is that the only effective way you "MAY" improve your rating is to join their "Premium Services" and PAY THEM a monthly fee! That's extortion. But at least that only hurts lawyers.

But rumors swirl that some lawyers reportedly give great reviews to each other in exchange for the same. Hence the rave comments by those with perfect reviews. But even the very best lawyer I ever knew, would not have gotten PERFECT reviews from clients and colleagues. (What practicing lawyer makes ALL clients fully satisfied?) This means potential clients in need of solid counsel, are potentially misdirected and harmed.

WORSE STILL, Your only option to paying them off, is to request they NOT show your rating, but then they publicly present your request to hide their ratings of you - with the clear implication that you must be hiding something negative.

This is a shake down, it's extortion, and I'm appalled.

Ok so I have not realized that mentioning something of a false accusation question (I won't mention bc I don't think it's good to mention but it starts with an m.) would be so bad, I was asking for a friend who really really needed advice but all I kept getting was that it wasn't wise to mention it bc cops can literally do a search warrant. Well I couldn't have known otherwise but my friend is now 1000% more terrified that I'll be in trouble, which I feel the same way. Plus the person that answered the question was somehow implying that someone did a crime when I specifically said it was a false accusation. Anyway, literally doesn't give advice even when you REALLY need it, I'm not trying to cause trouble but I'm very sure they won't give any advice to cases like that IF you mention it's you. Beware to those who don't know, just don't ask sensitive topics or cases looked down upon for the suspects because everyone will be against you. If you're going to ask a serious question like that, please change your location into a super far away state/country from you or don't even ask that site at all bc they won't answer questions to a "suspect" of this kind of topic. In the end, it's not good and just use simple google for the research, the whole site is just basically kind of one sided sometimes.

I wrote a 1 star review of a lawyer I had a really bad experience with - not returning my calls / e-mails, charging me for services that were sort of half-rendered, not even explaining the legal process to me...

Avvo denied my reviews over and over citing "guidelines". When I enumerated exactly how I was meeting the guidelines, and I kept asking over and over for something more specific if I was truly not meeting the guidelines, I was finally told my review was about "mediation / arbitration" (those are not accepted).

Mediation / arbitration in their guidelines is about the lawyer being a neutral third party to mediation. It was 100% clear in my review, and my response to Avvo support, that I hired the lawyer to represent me in court and our interests were aligned - this was NOT a neutral party.

Each time I asked for a phone number to speak to a specific person, I was ignored.

So, the most logical conclusion I can reach is that they are cultivating reviews by making the barrier to acceptance so high they hope I will just give up.

I hired the attorney and paid on behalf of my son. What is the problem with the review, this is my personal experience, and I signed the contract with Peter Wosnik. How can my experience with the attorney not be appropriate and personal.
Your review of Wosnik Peter was denied: Underwhelmed 09/01/22 02:32 PM
There is a point when you can pay the attorney what is asked, but they don't have to provide you with an informed and helpful defense as what was the case for my family. Not all attorneys are defensive or fighters. This attorney proved to be just that, and I could not in good conscience recommend this person as a defense attorney; not if you expect sound advice. He is not to be trusted. I found the way this attorney worked to be more underhanded and should have tried the public defender system. (Or found a knowledgeable attorney that has the respect of the court to fight and not secretly agree with the DA. In retrospect, I made a crucial error in hiring Wosnik.

That is the truth and facts from my point of view.

To write IN DETAIL the specifics of your question to get a simple answer of "get a lawyer" from these pricks is testament to how pompous and classist lawyers think they really are!

These legal websites are just whorehouses for these zealots!

I don't like this website. The lawyers I dealt with seem rude, shady, snotty, unhelpful, judgmental, and giving me false information. I was very angry and upset. I will never use AVVO website again.

Even trying to keep it clean and to the facts - seems reviews get denied. Has any one had any luck?

Question: Do lawyers pay for this site and if they pay is that why reviews are denied?

Avvo rejects negative reviews and represents attorneys involved in illegal scams and rackets. Avvo rejected my negative review because they claimed my complaint was unsubstantiated, so I sent them proof that the attorney is involved in internet extortion, and they STILL rejected my review. AVVO CLAIMS TO BE IMPARTIAL, BUT THEY ARE VERY PARTIAL. AVVO IS NOT REPUTABLE.

I am a practicing attorney and my "profile" was posted some time ago to the Avvo site without my consent, along with an arbitrary 6.5/10 "rating," with zero reviews, which apparently came from nowhere. I called and was told the rating comes from an "algorithm like Google," but that makes no sense as I do not participate in the respected attorney rating services like Martindale-Hubbell and therefore have never been "rated" by anyone. They agreed to remove my profile after a few weasel-worded emails trying to defend this nonsense.

The deal, apparently, is that you can join this "service" and gratuitously endorse other lawyers to gain ratings. It also sounds like you can pay money to raise your rating or what have you.
It's flatly libelous in my opinion, given that attorneys are added to the site without contacting them first (presumably from some web crawler scraping the state bar websites) and unless you agree to participate, you are saddled with a baseless low rating.

It's hard enough to build a professional reputation without these yahoos extorting people to participate in their meaningless database.

Don't encourage them.

I retained this attorney for my divorce after I filed for the divorce and did all the leg work for paperwork to prove the mother was unfit to gain child custody as she has a severe gambling issue this attorney allowed my case to be rushed without putting out any discoveries to prove the mothers negligence and allowed the courts to put in 2 child support orders for the same mother, she did not file paperwork on time which lead my case into default, the mother doesn't work and the judge clearly stated to get the child exemptions were awarded to me for tax purposes and at the end of my case which she allowed to be rushed and closed in 2 months I lost the exemptions, I have no divorce decree and my children are living in an unsafe environment thousands of dollars later. She would not fight or argue anything in my defense I could have represented myself better and I have a technical education please beware unless you want to give your money away and get railroaded at the same time do not use this attorney and do not trust avvo review about her i wrote a review about this attorney and avvo removed it and replaced it with a fake one describing her as an awesome attorney. You can make your own descisions just know after your bad experience that I tried to warn you and protect your bank account as well as your life altering divorce and or child custody case please beware!

Dishonest and favors attorneys who pay them money. Don't sign up for there services because if you decide to sue, you are obligated to sue them in Washington state and no where else

Highly recommend low and low bankruptcy law offices, as I was going through a financial strive, a close friend suggested that it was in my best interest to put all my debt worries into the hands of an experienced, professional bankruptcy attorney. Therefore, I did some research online and came across a well-known, referred attorney by the name of russell low. He has up to four different offices locations in the state of new jersey for your convenience so, I decided to make that call. The experience in whole made it well worth the time and gave me a second chance to start over, from the receptionist whom made the appt to the paralegals that prepared and guided me through the whole process of filing bankruptcy. Mr. Low is definitely an exceptional lawyer. I would absolutely refer him to anyone in need. I felt at ease, reassured and informed at all times about what was going on with my case each step of the way, it was so easy, fast and in a matter of a few months I was debt free. Amazing job! Thank you and the great team behind if it all

1/22/17
You are not able to leave a negative review for a lawyer on avvo. I hired a Andy Williams with Antiphon law office in Green Bay WI and I hired him based off this scam website. The lawyer was awful. It was a child custody case. He NEVER filed paperwork he stated he would file against my ex, six months into the case and important papers had not been filed. Other paperwork that had been filed was not filed properly and the judge informed my lawyer of this four months after the paperwork was filed. This paperwork was contempt of court and notice to produce documents. Very important paperwork for my defense and not done or done improperly. I went 4 weeks with no return phone call or email. He never returned any phone calls or emails to the GAL. He did not want to fight for my case and what i wanted but wanted me to agree with my ex and give my ex what he wanted. I tried to write a negative review of him on avvo and they would not publish it. I put details and facts like the review guideline states and they still declined to publish it. Then I read on another website that avvo rates the lawyers based on what the lawyers put in their bio and if the lawyers have a credit card on file. After hiring this lawyer and then finding bad reviews of him on other websites I now believe that. I have now spent double the money hiring someone else to try to fix my case. Its a nightmare. I would never recommend this avvo website or this lawyer. Big waste of time and money.

Yes, let's get this out. AVVO is a scam. I just checked on an atty I wanted to give the innocent people looking for a GOOD atty, some heads up on. I mean obviously blatantly a scammer and the review wasn't there but I saw it in my review lists and it said it was denied. I checked this attys reviews on his page, get this, after MANY years on AVVO he only had like 7 reviews. Some I saw before were removed. ALL were 5 star. You're all right. AVVO does not post true reviews. When I "googled" AVVO is a scam, something came up on how they fight the ones that leave "bad reviews". Not worth posting true reviews there AND the worst scammer attorney in the world could be made to look like the most diligent and helpful attorney. VERY dissapointing that AVVO is a scam but very GOOD to know.

I left a review of a terrible DC/MD lawyer named Mary Paloger on the AVVO site. The review was submitted, approved and posted. Several days later, they took the post down citing that I didn't indicate that I had hired. I resubmitted the review and cited that I hired her and gave examples. Then declined saying that "Simply accused Mary Paloger of criminal activity or unethical behavior without providing factual details."

I wrote the following to their corporate office through the contact page...
"I have now submitted two reviews of Mary Paloger. The first was approved, then later denied when Mary complained. I sent another with your suggestions and edits - and then it was deemed "Simply accused Mary Paloger of criminal activity or unethical behavior without providing factual details." Since when did I have to become a lawyer to leave a review. Your site is misrepresenting the reason that this exist. If AVVO is simply going to function as "Linked-In" you should advertise as such or partner with them. I will leave another review later. However, if that is also denied after following your site rules... I will then take my complaints about Mary Paloger and AVVO to twitter, Reddit, and the web. Not a threat, just attempting to be more transparent than AVVO. Your choice."

Protects lawyers. Won't post bad reviews. I gave them state bar grievance and won't post. Screens my calls now. I call from a different number and then they answer