Clifford’s Notes: Don’t jump on the bandwagon

By Robert A. Clifford
Clifford Law Offices

I attended the American Bar Association’s annual meeting this year in New York and I thought I caught most of the highlights — but apparently not.

What created quite a stir is a booth in the exposition area that reportedly was manned by attractive models in short, tight nurses’ outfits and red high heels. And, oh, by the way, there also was an overflowing toilet at the booth.

An offer was made to the first 500 attorneys who signed up for the product to get in on it free. After that, it would cost $1,000 annually. What was it?

A new website called www.WhoCanISue .com, developed by an attorney, Curtis Wolfe, who says that his goal is to match up potential clients with lawyers.

Visit the website and you’ll see a man in a suit carrying a briefcase slipping on a banana peel. He also advises lawyers, ”Stop throwing money down the toilet on other forms of legal marketing.”

Is this for real? Is the profession that desperate? Do attorneys really think that the public is so clueless or just plain dumb that they are unable to find a competent lawyer without visiting a site called ”Who Can I Sue”?

Wolfe, a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law, apparently decided to leave a partnership at a Miami law firm and serve a different purpose in the profession. He says his website differs from other legal matchmakers because it allows users to instant-message a lawyer or immediately contact those who advertise on the site. He says that it is a useful service because it may discourage ”frivolous lawsuits.” Although I disagree with his premise. What is the price to the profession, not to mention to consumers who might take this seriously?

Wolfe launched the site in September, a new career he publicly attributes to one of his wife’s friends who had difficulty in locating a divorce lawyer. In an interview with Lawyers Weekly USA, Wolfe said, ”If you’re a common person, I don’t know how you ever find an attorney other than by going to the Yellow Pages, looking at someone’s ad, dialing and hoping.”

Although it has garnered quite a bit of publicity — from Time magazine to CNN — it also has had its share of critics. Legal bloggers are having a field day in questioning the founder’s ethics — and rightfully so.

James Grogan, deputy administrator and chief counsel of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, said the site is merely another legal directory but it could potentially present ethics issues if there is sharing of legal fees with someone who merely recommends a lawyer’s services. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 7.2(b), which deals with the payment of advertising may come into play.

More importantly, though, Grogan is concerned with potential clients who may reveal confidential information about a potential case and then later find that their attorney-client privilege is waived because they posted it on a website where non-lawyers, including employees managing the website, may have viewed it.

Wolfe undertakes a legal matchmaking service by having consumers answer a series of questions about their grievances. Lawyers who have signed onto this service then bid on ad placements on the website directed at the consumers who are asking the questions. The consumer is then referred to five local attorneys, customers of Wolfe’s, and the higher the attorneys have bid, the more prominent is the placement of their ad on the site.

I ask: What makes these lawyers any more competent than any others if the consumer did find them in a prominent Yellow Pages ad? There is no screening, no credentials; no experience in the practice area is even necessary. Just join and bid.

Frankly, the whole process is not only scary, it is bound to give the public a rancid taste in their mouths about the profession, not to mention the despicable commercials on the website showing people in wheelchairs and neck braces, ambulances with men in briefcases running after them, and a ”lawyer” from ”Dewey Cheatum & Howe” who needs to ”join the revolution.”

Although, as Grogan points out, the rules across the country may be liberal in allowing law firms to market and get their names out in the public, I find that most people find competent lawyers through referrals. Whether it be through a friend, co-worker or a lawyer who might have handled their will or real estate closing, people know how to seek out a lawyer.

And most people certainly know how to search the Internet to readily locate many reputable firms with sophisticated and easily navigable websites that catalog not only their accomplishments and experience, but also the practice areas and curriculum vitae of its attorneys.

I am ashamed for Wolfe and for those who feel they have a need for his services. And even though he may be getting some publicity about his brainstorm, I hope lawyers will make the right decision not to jump on his marketing bandwagon.