Avvo Bares Fixed-Fee Legal Services

Like fixed-fee bar referral programs, Avvo Legal Services sounds like a winner -- for the right lawyers, that is.

Avvo new logoAvvo Inc., an online service helping people find lawyers, aims to provide fixed-fee legal services to customers in a new service, called Avvo Legal Services (ALS). Like Avvo Advisor, ALS users pay upfront for access to a lawyer. But rather than ask legal questions over the telephone, the new service offers users a method to select a lawyer willing and able to complete a prescribed legal task.

Lawyers who register for ALS choose their jurisdiction and practice area, be it business, family or immigration law, and select the discrete services they want to offer. Avvo calculates prices and defines the services, such as reviewing a consulting or prenuptial agreement ($149), starting a single-member LLC ($595), or filing an uncontested divorce ($995).

Avvo customers purchase the prescribed legal services, choose the lawyer they want to work with, and pay upfront the price of the service. The selected lawyer completes the service for the client and gets paid the full legal fee. In a separate transaction, the attorney pays Avvo a per-service marketing fee for the service.

Although Avvo’s service sounds like a lawyer referral service, it’s not. The Seattle-based company is not referring people to particular lawyers. Avvo customers select a lawyer from the pool of participating lawyers. It’s not fee-splitting either, but it can be hair-splitting.

When prescribed work is complete, Avvo deposits entire client payments into participating lawyers’ operating accounts monthly. In separate transactions, Avvo debits the operating accounts a per-service marketing fee. “Fee splits are not inherently unethical,” said Josh King, Avvo’s general counsel. “They only become a problem if the split creates a situation that may compromise a lawyer’s professional independence of judgment.”

Like credit card fees, King believes that Avvo’s marketing fee would not create the potential for compromised judgment. ALS is similar to Avvo Advisor, which has operated in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, without complaint.

Registered lawyers can use their own retainer agreement but it should align with Avvo’s Legal Services Terms for the fixed fee service. If an Avvo customer is not a good fit for a selected lawyer, the lawyer can decline to provide services by emailing to services@avvo.com. On the other side of the coin, Avvo encourages its registered lawyers to continue their professional contact with the fixed-fee clients beyond the initial purchase and service.

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Fixed fees are not a new business model for attorneys. I have done my share with mixed results. State bar referral programs have successfully offered fixed-fee legal services for limited income residents in well-defined areas, such as no-fault and uncontested divorce actions. But fixed fees are not a business model to start a practice.

Usually an attorney new to a practice area will not have the requisite expertise to complete a client’s task within the boundary of time and labor defined by the prescribed fee less the marketing fee. Although it may seem like a good way to retain clients in a new area, the potential clients are looking for attorneys who can quickly dispatch their defined work, which by definition is not recurring work. Delays in dispatching prepaid work will frustrate clients and leave attorneys with a bad Avvo review, which can cause their expulsion from the fixed-fee program, according to the terms of service.

But if you’re an experienced attorney in business, family or immigration law and feel confident you can competently complete certain fixed-fee services, the monthly check can augment your income and the new clients can become long-term customers who come back to you for other services or refer your practice to their family and friends.

Like the fixed-fee bar referral programs, ALS sounds like a winner for the right lawyers. But it will require a well-defined customer intake process to ensure a prospective client’s needs fall within the prescribed limits of service for registered attorneys to perform for a sum certain.

(Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi’s Lawsites blog post for bringing Avvo’s service to my attention.)

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Avvo Begins Offering Fixed-Fee Legal Services in Certain Locations [LawSites]


Attorney Sean Doherty has been following enterprise and legal technology for more than 15 years as a former senior technology editor for UBM Tech (formerly CMP Media) and former technology editor for Law.com and ALM Media. Sean analyzes and reviews technology products and services for lawyers, law firms, and corporate legal departments. Contact him via email at sean@laroque-doherty.net and follow him on Twitter: @SeanD0herty.

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