Avvo doesn’t stand still.
Not content with building the world’s largest lawyer directory, the Seattle-based company has taken the next step on its mission to make legal services more accessible by launching a fixed fee legal service called Avvo Advisor.
For $39, consumers receive 15 minutes of phone time with an experienced lawyer, after accessing the service online or via a free app.
“At Avvo, we want to make access to legal help as routine as getting a medical check-up, and Avvo Advisor is a game-changing step towards that goal,” said Mark Britton, Avvo’s founder and CEO, in a statement.
Interestingly, Avvo said that their research showed that most consumers got the information they needed in less than 15 minutes.
For example: seeking clarity on how to proceed with a legal issue, determining if you need a lawyer, and identifying and preventing potential legal troubles.
To use the service, you go online or download the app.
Then you select the type of legal issue – say divorce – before submitting your payment and contact information.
An attorney calls you back within 15 minutes for the initial advice session.
Avvo Advisor is currently available in nine legal categories – small business, divorce, family, immigration, real estate, landlord-tenant, criminal defense, employment and bankruptcy/debt – and fifteen states.
More categories and states will be added.
The Avvo homepage is now divided into three clear buckets:
1/ Q+A – to receive answers to legal questions
2/ Advisor – to talk directly to a lawyer
3/ Directory – to search lawyer profiles
Avvo Advisor follows hot on the heels of the JD app, which was released in August 2014.
Aimed at attorneys, they can use the app to answer questions in their practice area or local region, and publish answers to questions.
Avvo Advisor also builds on an earlier service called “legal marketplace”, which launched in 2013.
That offered consumers the ability to “privately seek guidance on how to proceed with their individual situation.”
For those unfamiliar with Avvo, it is a new-generation online legal site that was launched in June 2007 by Mark Britton, the former general counsel of online travel agent, expedia.com.
Avvo has grown remarkably since then and is now the largest online legal marketplace connecting consumers and lawyers, and one of the most heavily used legal websites.
Originally a lawyer directory, the company soon evolved to become a “question and answer” forum.
The lawyer directory features 97% of all lawyers in the US, and Avvo’s Q&A forum has 180,000 participating lawyers and 6.1 million existing questions and answers.
A constant innovator in the legal directories space, the company launched Avvo Ignite in 2013, a marketing platform and marketplace for attorneys.
In April 2014, Avvo raised a further $37.5 million in financing, and set its sights on international expansion.
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