Finding a Good Bankruptcy Lawyer in Arizona, Part II

There's a new resource in town!

While an AV-rating in Martindale-Hubbell is one of the the things I've suggested that a consumer should look for when deciding on representation, there is a new, innovative and possibly meaningful directory that could be useful to a consumer of legal services who is seeking a bankruptcy lawyer for a Chapter 7, Chapter 13, Chapter 11 or Chapter 12. 

And that's AVVO.com

AVVO is a controversial, innovative site that works to collect data from multiple locations and collate it, to provide what it hopes is a meaningful stack of information about bankruptcy lawyers in Arizona, or any lawyers anywhere, for that matter. 

In some ways it's like a lot of other lawyer directory websites, but it has something that sets it apart from the other lawyer finding directories; it has an artificial intelligence ranking system for lawyers. 

Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Just scanning through the lists of bankruptcy lawyers I know in Arizona shows me that some lawyers got higher scores than they deserved, and others got lower scores than they deserved. For instance, at the time of this posting, neither Gerald K. Smith nor John Dawson, both Deans of Bankruptcy Practice in Arizona and the Southwest, had perfect 10 ratings. That alone tells me the ranking system is not perfect.

But "not perfect" doesn't mean useless. The feature that alerts consumers to bar sanctions is a an add-on that must be of some use. Now, all sanctions and censures are not the same. And it appears to me that AVVO makes no attempt to distinguish between a mere technical issue (an innocent use of the word "specialist" if you are not a bankruptcy specialist recognized by the Arizona Board of Legal Specialization or the ABI, for instance, and by innocent I mean the lawyer just didn't know about the rule) and a censure or sanction for an act that's just bad (backing over your client in the parking lot because he was cranky in your office). 

But knowing that the sanction is out there is a good thing for consumers, because it lets the consumer do further research when trying to find a bankruptcy lawyer.

Furthermore, my guess is that the AVVO rating for Arizona bankruptcy lawyers will improve in accuracy over time, as lawyers who are good at their craft get "endorsements" from their peers, and as the bankruptcy lawyers themselves plug in information like Martindale AV ratings and former Chair positions with bar associations, and other information useful to consumers. 

Now, the old standbys like Findlaw.com are certainly going to continue to be used by consumers contemplating bankruptcy who are trying to find or looking for a good bankruptcy lawyer in Arizona.

But it seems to me that there's a place for a site like AVVO if it continues to improve in accuracy, and if the AVVO rating of 10.0 starts to mean something like the Martindale AV rating. Both of them attempt to provide useful information to the end user, but AVVO uses a computer algorithm to come up with a number, balancing multiple (secret) variables, and Martindale uses confidential peer review to rank bankruptcy lawyers in Arizona. 

Seems to me that more information for consumers is a good thing when searching for or trying to find a good bankruptcy lawyer in Arizona. 

And I'll post more on this site as I review more lawyer directories that may be useful to consumers in finding an av rated AVVO 10.0 Board Certified Bankruptcy Lawyer with decades of experience and Chair positions on every Arizona Bar Association or American Bar Association section or committee known to mankind. Or any other kind of bankruptcy lawyer in Arizona that they're looking for. 

p.s. I'm going to re-work this post soon, or replace it entirely. One of the things I wanted to discuss was the series of credentials a potential bankruptcy client should look for in a potential bankruptcy lawyer. Here's a summary list that may be easier to plow through than all the words up above:

-board certified as a specialist in bankruptcy law;
-Martindale AV rated as a bankruptcy lawyer;
-AVVO 10.0 rated as a bankruptcy lawyer;
-Superlawyers.com profiled;
-Willing to take consumer bankruptcy debtor cases, as opposed to just taking commercial secured creditor cases, or taking Chapter 11 Creditor Committees, or representing banks in bankruptcy cases;
-has a few testimonials somewhere from prior clients.

Your lawyer doesn't need to have all of those, of course, but the more of 'em he or she has, the lower the risk of a horrible result in your case. Bear in mind that with the best lawyer in the world, you can still have a horrible result if you start with bad facts (you embezzeled four million from your boss and haven't paid taxes in l9 years, and you have dandruff)or you do dumb things (hide a shoebox stuffed with cash at your neighbor's house).