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September 2008, Issue #28

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In this issue:

Marketing For Law Firms Via
Attorney-Client Matching Services – Updated September 2008

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Marketing for law firms marches on, which it always does, in the two years since I wrote my original analysis of attorney-client matching services. There are some new players I will talk about in this article and the number two vendor at that time (www.CasePost.com) suddenly disappeared! Unfortunately this disappearance probably left many having paid fees for services they will never receive and the sudden loss of any new clients that were coming from that source. Please don’t jump to the conclusion that because the number two player in this field failed bodes ill for the whole niche of attorney-client matching services. Could be they just executed a good model poorly. Still, it is a cautionary tale pointing out the dangers of making annual agreements with vendors.

First I will review the older players and then the newer ones at www.SueEasy.com and www.WhoCanISue.com. If you want to see the original article of two years ago go here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/45l5vv

Also please don’t confuse attorney-client matching services with directories. They are not the same. The biggest directory services are www.Lawyers.com and www.FindLaw.com. If you want to learn more about directories see my article on that topic here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3pv6kc

LegalMatch.com

The biggest vendor in the niche is www.LegalMatch.com. They still have a strategic alliance with the Utah State Bar Association. Their Google Page Rank is 5 which is a respectable rank and higher than most by far.

You can read about how they work here:

www.legalmatch.com/attorneys/index.html

They still provide a guarantee (www.legalmatch.com/attorneys/atty-guarantee.html). They also have added "special benefits" to their offers for members called the Case Study Program that you can read about here:

www.legalmatch.com/attorneys/caseStudies/CS-benefits.html

They now offer full practice financing, merchant accounts and financing for their services. You can learn about it here:

http://www.legalmatch.com/finance/index.html

LegalFish.com

The second largest firm in this niche is www.LegalFish.com. Their Google Page Rank is 5 which is certainly a respectable rank and higher than most by far. You can read more detail on their services here:

http://www.legalfish.com/cgi/atnserv.php

One unique difference guarantee-wise from all the other providers is quoted from their site below:

MAXIMIZE RESULTS WITH A "SHARED-RISK" ADVERTISING APPROACH
Unlike other advertising services, LegalFish offers a "shared-risk" membership program for personal injury and other contingency fee-based practice areas. In each month, if LegalFish is unable to deliver you at least one client engagement we waive the monthly advertising fee! To find out if you are eligible for this program, please contact us at 1.888.950.5465.

Additionally they do not require any member attorneys to sign long term contracts. This approach certainly forces them to produce results or you will be gone sooner than later. This “shared-risk” approach keeps them more accountable if they want to be successful. They also have added a new service on their site called AdCAST. The best way to learn about that service is by reading about it here:

http://www.legalfish.com/adcast/

Or going to the demo here:

http://www.legalfish.com/cgi/adcast_demo.php

Third party advertisers can access this program as well as members to reach consumers and/or members.

Martindale Hubble’s Approach – Lawyers.com

Now we turn to a Martindale Hubble’s approach to attorney-client matching at www.Lawyers.com. If you go to this page you will find below the fold (this means you have to scroll down to find it) in the middle of a lot of other things, to find a place to click to go to their "attorney match" system. I fear this is poor placement on the page for the matching site. This link will take you to www.attorneys.com which is their matching site. They have a very good Google Page Rank of 6. If you follow the process like a visitor you will find the visitor will ultimately be taken to a listing of attorneys. In my zip code there were 12 listings for divorce attorneys for me to pick from within 7 miles of my home. I could send my info to those I check off to review. I don’t see how this is much different than www.Lawyers.com and is not similar to what LegalMatch or LegalFish are doing with attorney-client matching. In short they just don’t seem to be in the same class as those two it seems.

Thompson Reuters Approach – FindLaw.com

Next, FindLaw.com has their attorney-client matching system at this address:

www.legalconnection.com/.

I could not find a link to their attorney matching site on the home page. If one clicks on the "Find Lawyers" button on the home page it takes me to a page where in the fine print it offers a link to legalconnection.com if I check the box in looking for lawyers titled “I want a lawyer to contact me.” I went over to LegalConnection and saw they have a Google Page Rank of 3 which is not very exciting. It is a rank that is probably better than 95% of the web pages out there on the internet and not an exciting rank. I had to fill out a form with my information before I see the listings of attorneys. I did not go that far. I bet once I get to the end of the line there will be a listing similar to www.lawyers.com. I doubt that this site is delivering the same level of service and value as LegalMatch and LegalFish.

The Two New Kids On The Block

Now we can move on to the new folks on the block. www.SueEasy.com (founded late in 2007) and www.WhoCanISue.com (scheduled to debut this month). These folks are not without some controversy and not just among attorneys. Among the better articles on WhoCanISue.com see below:

Lawyers Weekly USA here:

http://www.lawyersweeklyusa.com/index.cfm/archive/view/id/431563

Or try the one in Time Magazine here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/5aos7n

Or maybe Attorney Larry Bodine’s article here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6pub95

Or if you want to listen to an interview of the Founder of www.WhoCanISue.com on Fox News go here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/5davx6

So what makes these two different or unique from what is available now? I asked Curtis Wolfe who is the founder of WhoCanISue.com via email and here is what he wrote about his coming new service:

Harlow: What is unique about your service that is not available via your competitors?

Wolfe: From the user's perspective, Whocanisue.com focuses on a rich user experience. To this end, we provide user oriented content about their topic of interest. After reviewing the content, the user can choose to answer a few simple questions to determine if they are qualified for a claim. Once qualified, with our patent pending business process the user is presented a page with banner ads from attorneys in the user's area who specialize in the type of case the user has. The user can mouse over each ad to review the attorney's profile (how long they have been practicing, where they have offices, specialties, languages, et al), start an instant message with someone from the firm, start a telephone call with someone from the firm, visit the firm's website, or request that the firm contact the user. Our system allows the user to browse legal topics, learn about potential claims, and then contact the attorney of their choosing, when they are ready. Our system also gives users information and access to an attorney in real time. Our competitors' sites usually result in an attorney calling on the user once their process is done, but certainly not in real time.

I also asked Sahil Kazi of SueEasy.com the same question and here is what he said via email:

Harlow: What is unique about your services that are not available via your competitors?

Kazi: Our USP (unique selling point) is the Class Action collaboration both for certified Class Actions as well as user-generated consumer complaints leading to possible Cases. We offer a consolidated 'Rainmaker League' advertising package for large law firms that handle personal injury, Class Actions and similar cases. What about fees? Here is what Wolfe of WhoCanISue.com had to say about fees via email:

Harlow: How do you determine your fees? Are they monthly, annually, etc? Details here please.

Wolfe: We have an annual network membership fee that will be set based on different factors, but will be set at a reasonable rate (2009 annual rate not set, but estimated at $2,500). Our advertising rates are set by the attorneys through a bidding process. For each topic area, the attorney can determine what value he or she places on the advertising opportunity and bid accordingly. Only where there is an anomaly where we don't have sufficient network members in a certain area, we may place a minimum bid on a particular path. Here is what Zari of SueEasy had to say about fees via email to the same question:

Harlow: How do you determine your fees? Are they monthly, annually, etc? Details here please.

Zari: Currently, SueEasy is free to join for verified attorneys. This will enable them to view litigant complaints and contact them directly. All complaints are from litigants who have agreed to have interested attorneys contact them. We have 2 separate advertising packages for firms or attorneys who want higher exposure and have their ads displayed inside the litigant’s private portal, main page, Class Action pages etc. The 2 plans are Client Intake Questionnaire Sponsorship (for solo and small law firms) and Rainmaker League (for Class Action and personal injury firms).

The introductory prices for these are as follows:

Client Intake Questionnaire Sponsorship - $165 / month OR $1855 / YEAR
Rainmaker League - $365 / month OR $3999 / YEAR

More details and ordering online can be done from the following URL: www.sueeasy.com/ad

The yearly plans, besides offering significant savings, will ensure sustained placement for the firm and will benefit from Search Engine Optimization tactics we undergo bi-monthly.

For placing ads on the main page, firms can contact us with their practice area, size of their firm etc. and we will try to accommodate them, since we have limited spots available. Here is what they both had to say about guarantees:

Harlow: What is the guarantee your firm offers to the attorney who signs on with you, if any?

Wolfe: We do not guarantee any particular number of referrals, since we are not a referral service, or any type of geographical exclusivity since we open our service to every qualified, licensed attorney and firm. We only guarantee a fair opportunity to advertise their services to our users. Zari: We do not give any guarantees but you are sure to find a lot more clients. We received over 1 million hits in our first month and have a consistent traffic flow with almost 5000 hits per day from every state.

Here is what was said about differences and similarities:

Harlow: How does www.WhoCanISue.com differ or is similar to what you are doing?

Harlow’s Note: In my mind when I originally viewed SueEasy.com’s website several days and many times I was thinking of SueEasy.com as focusing on Class Actions and PI only. I found in the email from Zari that that is not the case although clearly I originally thought that was the case from viewing the site. SueEasy.com reports openings in PI, bankruptcy, criminal law, DUI/DWI, family law, employment law, immigration, wills & probate, intellectual property, insurance claims, investor rights, and class actions. Zari understandably could not comment on WhoCanISue.com since he has not seen it as yet so he could not compare/contrast.

Harlow: How does www.SueEasy.com differ or is similar to what you are doing?

Wolfe: SueEasy focuses on class action cases and describes itself as the "Internet’s Largest Class Action Database." We are a full-service legal matching site, where people can go to find attorneys in all practice areas, including divorce, criminal and even defense firms. Also, the SueEasy user does not maintain control of the selection process or get to review information from multiple attorneys. Unlike Whocanisue, the SueEasy users are contacted by attorneys selected by SueEasy’s process.

Harlow’s Quick & Dirty Recommendations

Should you use any of these options? The elegant answer is it depends. If you want to find out if one of these is for you from an independent marketing expert then call me and we can spend 20 or 30 minutes and I will give you an answer that fits for you personally based on your current situation. Complimentary of course. If I was going to give you thumbs up on one of these that I think is at least worth the risk without talking to you then I would go with LegalFish.com first. Why? Great guarantee, shared risk and monthly fee. Test the waters there and see if you like this approach and it returns on your investment. If you find you like LegalFish.com you then can look at LegalMatch.com since you can be in more than one of this type of attorney-client matching. I would not go with LegalConnection.com or Attorneys.com most likely at all. I will spare you the reasons why I would not.

Do I think the two newcomers are worth a shot? Again it depends is the best answer so call and we can talk. Without delving into the at least arguable “image” controversy of these two newcomers with respect to the profession I would say almost certainly they can generate traffic to their sites you can’t get by yourself so there is opportunity with them. Are they worth the investment and risk? Well, clearly there is more risk with them as there are no guarantees. SueEasy.com is free to register with so you could give it a look and it has monthly fees if you upgrade so you could start with them and see if it works for you and then add WhoCanISue.com later.

Do I think any of these options are good long term options? The elegant answer is no for most attorneys and yes for some attorneys. I went into this aspect in depth in the old article. To keep it short here if you build your referral network the right way, build your own internet marketing systems correctly (notice I did not say a website I said Internet marketing systems) and pay attention to building long term relationships with old clients then you won’t need these options. You may still keep these options but you won’t need these options. The best place to be would be to have the choice in the matter.

One more point before we end the article. On LegalMatch and LegalFish do remember that you will be negotiating a fee with them. You don’t necessarily have to accept the first fee they offer you for their services.

Comments, ideas, questions or topics you would like to see addressed in future newsletters? I would love to hear from you. Just reply to this newsletter and tell me what you think.

To your success,

Henry Harlow
Founder, www.Law-Firm-Marketing-Coach.com

PS: Get your #1 attorney marketing problem solved today. Spend complimentary individual quality time with me on the telephone. Dial 888-434-3006 now or get more details by clicking here right now.