Lawyer ranking site raises hackles

John Henry Browne, a criminal law attorney, has told Avvo in a letter that he has retained counsel in exploration of a potential lawsuit against the company for the low ranking it gave him when the site launched, The Register notes. Avvo offers a service no other legal directory currently provides – an algorithm-driven ranking system for attorneys. The system gathers data from public sources, like state bar associations, court records and lawyer site, to produce the rankings. However, the report notes that the ranking system could prove to be the site\'s downfall. In a 9th Circuit Court decision concerning the Roommates.com site, the court ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which immunises sites from lawsuits related to the publication of third-party content, did not shield a site that filtered that content. The court held that the filtering created a \'layer of information\' that counted as content generated by the site. Since Avvo uses its own mathematical system to generate attorney rankings, the resulting numbers could be deemed content generated by the site. However, proving defamation could still prove tricky as Avvo allows a mechanism whereby lawyers can correct erroneous information. Full report in The Register