Blog 3 - Mark Britton's Legacy. Injustice. Lawyer rating. Dishonesty.

WELCOME TO GARY WOLFSTONE'S BLOG No. 3 ~ Four noteworthy points about Avvo, Team Avvo and Mark Britton, the founder of Avvo.com:

  First, Mark Britton devotes great resources to gathering and publishing lawyers' discipline ~ thereby revealing himself to be a collector of injustices. Google the term "injustice collector." Read the articles by psychologists whose insightful remarks about "injustice collectors" paint a disturbing picture. The following seven characteristics are taken from Mark Sichel's discussion of the dysfunctional family ~ which I believe is a fair analogy to the legal profession. The "dysfunctional family" in our paradigm is the legal profession and Mark Britton is operating as a self-appointed patriarch of the family. According to Mr. Sichel, who is a practicing family psychotherapist, the common characteristics of "injustice collectors" are these:
1.   Injustice Collectors are convinced that they are never wrong. By anology, Mark Britton would never admit that he is damaging the legal profession in his Avvo.com website which makes prodigious efforts to expose all lawyers' disciplinary records on a national scale.
2.   Injustice Collectors do not apologize. So too, Mark Britton would never apologize for any aspect of his Avvo.com website which makes a spectacle of disciplined lawyers on a national scale.
3.   Injustice Collectors believe that they are morally and ethically superior to the people ~ disciplined lawyers in our paradigm ~ whom they expose.
4.   Injustice Collectors see themselves as enforcing rules. Mark Britton believes that "the public has a right to know" when he makes a spectacle of each lawyer's disciplinary record.
5.   Injustice Collectors are not concerned with their own transgressions of ethical rules. Mark Britton has always offered a First Amendment justification for his intrusion into the Washington, D.C. website which the D.C. Bar treats as a clear violation of its policies for disclosure.
6.   Injustice Collectors are never upset by the disparity of their rules for others with their own expectations of themselves.
7.   Injustice Collectors rationalize their own behavior with ease and comfort. Similarly, Mark Britton offers constitutional arguments for his use of the Avvo.com website to humiliate disciplinees in the legal profession.
    Mr. Sichel's book and website deal with the dysfunctional family. Other psychologists apply the same "Injustice Collector" concept to terrorists. In our paradigm, Mark Britton functions as an "Injustice Collector" when he employs lawyer bashing to attract the public to his website. Sadly, the legal profession is diminished because Avvo.com is rewarding cruelty and degrading nobility. Mr. Britton has elevated the model of "Injustice Collector" to a national disgrace because redemption is delayed or denied. Mark Britton is getting rich trafficking in human pain.

  Secondly, Avvo's founder, Mark Britton, presently confers an Avvo score of "10.0" (Superb Rating in Avvo's Book) on himself. In my opinion, however, his present Avvo score is a response to my criticism of Mr. Britton. In late 2010 and early 2011, I started my critique of Avvo. Mark Britton's Avvo score was a perfect "10" in 2010. After I published remarks asking whether Mark Britton is a greek god or just another narcissistic personality, he lowered his score twice. He lowered his score to "9.8" and subsequently lowered his score to "9.2" where it was until Internet Brands purchased Avvo.com in 2019. The Avvo web site claims that all data is impartial and that "lawyers we know" do not receive any preferential treatment. Not so ~ What Avvo says and what Avvo does are two different things. By lowering his Avvo score in response to my criticism, Mark Britton has ambushed the reader at Credibility Gap! For Mark Britton and his Team Avvo, the Truth is a set of movable blocks that Mark Britton can shift around ~ forwards, backwards, and sideways ~ to create whatever counterfeit reality pleases them.

   Third, Avvo purports to rank and rate physicians ~ once again with Avvo's brand of impartiality. If a doctor has been disciplined by his or her licensing authority, Avvo presumably publishes some mention of that discipline. However, the medical associations do not work on the same model as bar associations. Doctors are disciplined and scolded behind closed doors. Discipline or criticism or condemnation meted out in medical Peer Review Sessions are privileged with statutory protection and are not published. The medical profession accords itself great protection from malpractice lawsuits by using the Peer Review approach to re-educate and re-train doctors. However, if Team Avvo was honest and balanced, Avvo would publish medical malpractice lawsuits filed against physicians which are indeed a matter of public record ~ Avvo does not! Moreover, Avvo should publish medical malpractice judgments against physicians which are indeed a matter of public record ~ Avvo does not! Avvo protects its marketability with doctors by passing over this truly valuable public information. Avvo is obviously hard wired to make money when faced with the choice between consumer protection and giving shelter to this source of its revenue ~ Avvo's so-called "impartiality" is pure and simple hypocrisy!

Fourth, do the leading law firms in our community acknowledge Avvo scores and celebrate lawyers on their web sites with the almighty Avvo score of "10"? They do not. Go to the web site of any law firm with 20 or more attorneys and look for the page listing Honors and Awards. You will find Fortune's AV firms; Top Ranked Law firms and Lawyers; Super Lawyers; Best Law firms, U.S. News & World Report Best Lawyers, and many others. Avvo, however, is conspicuous by its absence! Apparently, there are still some people who inhabit the larger law firms who cherish the belief that lawyers are a positive force in society. These people ~ assuming they do exist ~ are the last, best hope for recognizing and admitting that Avvo is not only building walls but also promoting contempt and ridicule within our profession. Avvo builds itself up by putting other people down ~ all the while claiming to serve a consumer protection role. If Avvo is serving a consumer protection role, then we should award the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously to Joseph Goebbels.

   Truly, Avvo is a House of Desolation. If Avvo did not publish lawyer's discipline, its web site would shrivel up and die on the vine. I am proud to be a lawyer, but I am ashamed of Mark Britton and his Avvo.com web site.