Lawyers Marketing on the Web: Controversy

I've posted in the past about some dubious lawyer marketing. Most recently I posted about an upstate lawyer with a DWI business model for sale.

Another aspect of this kind of marketing is a variety of lawyer websites, along the lines of superfreakingawesomelawyers.com. Not a real website as far as I know, but you get the idea. Usually it's really a name like topiclawyers.com, or topic.com, where the word topic is replaced by the area of law -- personalinjury, or dwi, etc.

All of this web stuff irritates the old school lawyers somewhat. Even with me I'm sure some lawyers are not happy that one of my websites shows up more on searches than their own websites. With our firm at least, I think there's some respect for the fact that we really do the job once we get hired.

The thing that really bothers them is the lawyers out there who are scamming the public. I suspect our friend Smelly does not represent his clients as well as we do. He's more concerned about his business model. The big lesson in law is that if you do a good job for most of your clients then you'll do just fine. In the long run they'll call you with their next problem and they'll tell their friends about you too.

On the other hand, if you set out to make money, you will probably not be as focused as you should be on what's important -- doing a good job as a lawyer.

So this issue has flared up in controversy unrelated to me. There's a website out there -- dui1 dot com. I've been getting e-mails from this site soliciting me to advertise on it. The e-mails are not what I consider professional. So a lawyer named Will Worsham wrote a great post about it.

I also saw him complain about it here: Will Worsham and there's another guy: Ben Glass.

I got another e-mail in response to this controversy, and I'll just include the text below. Use your own judgment. I agree with the critics that this business-model mentality is disturbing. In the end I'm not sure it's that much different from the Yellow Pages or other advertising.

Turns out I'm listed on the site. I don't remember listing myself, but it is possible. The information is, of course, out of date. We'll have to fix that.

Anyway, the guy's e-mail response to the controversy follows (with my comments in italics):

There has been much hoopla in response to my comments on DUI Defense, in particular to my comment that DUI Defense is one of the most lucrative areas of criminal defense because most cases don't go to trial.

This doesn't make a lot of sense. Most cases don't go to trial in most areas of criminal defense. I make more money on trials, so I don't see why it would be more lucrative not to go to trial.

I have no intention of backing away from this assertion, and I do it for the benefit of my Premium Members and my members in general. My comments are directed only to criminal defense lawyers who I am wooing to become members of my site. I am not directing my remarks to the general public.

But they might see them. Why would you say something to one group and hide it from the general public, unless you are encouraging deception?

You see, DUI Defenders at dui1 dot com is the #1 result on Google due mostly to our size. We have over 300 standard members. We need to attract more and more standard members so we can remain the biggest website.

Why would I care about your goal of being the biggest website?

Many members of NCDD resent this comment. They are threatened because a newcomer to the game has a dominating presence on the web. They have paid their way to the top and we are doing it for free. They are intent on destroying our website to no avail. We have even been contacted by Google about complaints they've filed.

I've met a number of members of NCDD. They are generally dedicated DWI defense lawyers who are outstanding. Smelly may be an exception. I'm not a member, and probably won't become one as my practice is more varied (you're supposed to do more than 50% DWI defense, and I do a substantial amount of personal injury cases and other criminal defense).

We are now switching gears. We plan to run TV ads on six major US holidays. We plan to make 800-KICK-DUI a household name so people will recommend it to those who have been arrested for DUI.

So?

I am creating a new brand of DUI defense lawyers. There is the NCDD defense lawyer and then there is DUI Defenders defense lawyer. All I am trying to do is bring business to the latter.

Yeah, but one brand means something. Your brand means nothing.

The bottom line is this: the NCDD members who oppose me the most are those who have dominated the web and now face a challenge because people like you with a few hundred dollars a year can be part of a website that is #1 on Google.

I think they complain about you because you're more concerned with making money than you are with providing quality legal services.

What these guys fail to appreciate is that I have extraordinarily capable employees working on this site. The technology we employ to program this site is used by only one other company in the US: Google. Our main aggressor owns a competing website and though it is believed that he has sold his site, he still pimps for the buyer.

Sounds like a bunch of petty nonsense. And again, so what?

I hope you can support my efforts to grow the site, and the businesses of all our members.

Any lawyer who depends on this site (or any other site controlled by others) for his business is in a very vulnerable place. Don't support their efforts. Diversify yourself and build your own site (or sites).

David Sheehan, ESQ

No idea who this is, or why he puts Esq in ALLCAPS. Should be Esq.

Smelly Returns

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog post about a DWI lawyer I referred to as Smelly. This was not a reference to any odor, but rather a play on his name. I've never even met the guy, and have only talked - briefly - with one lawyer who has worked with him.

I mentioned in that post a perception among DWI lawyers about him. Well, now I found some gold. See the website and video below:

http://www.anellisystems.com/



So, do you want a lawyer who claims to have created the biggest DWI law firm in New York State in just 20 weeks, and who is trying to sell his business model to others?

Or do you want a DWI lawyer who sticks to his local area, keeps all his DWI work inside his firm, publishes the names of all his attorneys on his website, and is focused on getting you the best result possible?

It's not just us. There are a number of good DWI lawyers, both here in Albany and in other parts of the state, who focus on representing their clients instead of on building and selling a business model.

And by the way, the lawyer I mentioned who worked with this firm ... we interviewed him and didn't hire him. That firm doesn't publish the names of the attorneys who work for him ... and so you don't know who will be handling your case. With our firm you know - it'll be me, my associate Christian (our young gun who manages our DWI cases), or my senior associate David (a former prosecutor who manages our traffic practice). I don't need to hide who they are because they're good.

The interesting thing about him selling his marketing model is the throwback to a variation of that. For years a law firm here advertised themselves as "The Heavy Hitters." It turned out that there were (and still are) plenty of other "Heavy Hitters" in other markets, as close as Syracuse. You can read more about the Heavy Hitter thing by clicking on the previous link. The Heavy Hitter thing is an advertising model put forth by Group Matrix. Check out the Group Matrix video. About halfway through you'll see a familiar local firm. :-)

More about phony lawyer websites

A comment on my most recent post on fake lawyer websites asked how the scam works.

The scam is that potential clients see a somewhat attractive website that gives the appearance that it is a law firm in New York State. For example: "Our professional staff of Lawyers and Paralegals specialize and concentrate solely on NY traffic tickets." (from the home page)

This is not a law firm, at least not in New York. NY law firms are required to state their firm name and their firm address in any marketing. You cannot find the name of the law firm, any lawyer, or the address on the site. Lawyers in NY are also generally prohibited from saying they "specialize" in anything. This is picky, since we can say "focus", but it's still a rule binding NY lawyers.

The truth is that the entity behind this website is a Canadian marketing operation, not a NY law firm. How do I know it's Canadian? For one thing, the whois mentioned above shows a Canadian (.ca) e-mail address. For another, the site menu has the word "Offences" in it, and the site refers to "Demerit Points". Here in America we spell it Offenses, not Offences. And demerit points is the Ontario term for points you get on your license. NY does not refer to them as "demerit" points.

So what they do in the end is charge a fee to the client. Then they find a lawyer in the US to handle the case for them, and pay that lawyer a share of the fee. In other words, they do not disclose to the client that the $X they are spending really buys them a lawyer who is only worth $X-Y. I don't know how much they charge, but if they charge $750, and pay a lawyer $250 to show up, then you just paid $750 for a $250 lawyer.

To be clear about this, there is nothing wrong with a lawyer having another lawyer appear for him or her at a court appearance. We handle most tickets ourselves, but in some cases we have attorneys outside our firm appear for us. They appear "of-counsel" to us, and we certainly do not pay them the entire fee we received from our client. But we do a substantial amount of work on the case before and after the court appearance, and we instruct that attorney on how to handle the case. And we are legally responsible for their work, since it is our client. These marketing operations do not have NY law licenses and cannot be held responsible in the same way.

The New Yellow Pages

As an attorney with a substantial web presence, I frequently get solicited regarding listing on other websites. This ranges from sites like "personalinjurylawyers -dot- com" on what I would call the lower end of the scale (in terms of ethics) to "lawyers -dot- com" and "findlaw -dot- com" on the higher end.

I got an e-mail solicitation from lawyers-dot-com today, the text of which is below. What you can't see is that the message had various terms in bold, usually in color - either red or blue. While I did not find this particular solicitation too bad, note the clear message: "Since you do not have a full listing with us, it could be costing your firm revenue ...." That is marketing through fear.

The message also included an image that I will not bother including here. It was a bar graph that really didn't make a lot of sense.

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Greetings Counselors!

Do your search statistics from our websites - Martindale.com and Lawyers.com look like this? -


Since you do not have a full listing with us, it could be costing your firm revenue - from new and existing clients.

Please call/email me if you are curious as to what your search statistics are, were, and have been in the past.

If you are contemplating a full listing with Martindale-Hubbell once again, here are 10 reasons to do the listing now -

#1 - As an Internet Marketing Specialist, I look to enhance the listing to maximize exposure in an already proven medium
#2 - Making sure you have Preferred placement on Lawyers.com with a 1 page site that will drive web traffic to your existing website
#3 - Make sure you have all sub-category AOP's listed so your firm shows up in more searches than other attorneys already listed with us
#4 - Make sure appropriate icons are added to Lawyers.com listing to get more profile views
#5 - Add pictures and/or logos to Martindale.com and Lawyers.com to make listing stand out more
#6 - Help with the tagline on Lawyers.com to make listing bigger and more appealing without increasing the cost
#7 - Help facilitate the rating review process if it makes sense
#8 - Expedite the order so we can have listings and website up within 2 weeks
#9 - Offer you a complimentary($255 Value) Cross-Reference in a city that you are looking to bring business in from
#10 - If you plan to give a full listing a chance to help grow your business once again, this is a better time than next year to do it. - Prices will only increase.

As a returning subscriber, we can offer delayed billing for 90 days and interest-free monthly billing.

There are approximately 500,000 attorneys listed with us, and I'm sure many of your competitors. I think it is an investment that most attorneys can't afford not to be listed.

Thank You for your time and consideration.

[Name Omitted]
Account Executive
Martindale-Hubbell
121 Chanlon Road
New Providence, NJ 07974

[Phone/fax omitted]