When  Tempe criminal defense lawyer Matt Brown decided to go on a walking tour of America for a few months, he probably wasn’t sure what would greet him when he came home. He found out.

For one thing, Matt learned that he had now achieved a perfect 10 on Avvo.  This comes as no surprise, given the strength of the latest award he deservedly won, though his relationship with Avvo hadn’t always gone smoothly.  But now that he looked as fine as Bo Derek, he returned to an office bustling with people who needed him.

At some point after climbing onto the Colorado Plateau, however, the volume of voice messages increased. Not a lot, but a noticeable amount. Many callers’ messages demanded prompt calls back, ignoring my voice mail greetings entirely. When I called, most of them tried to negotiate my non-negotiable initial consultation fee. They became angry when I suggested I might not be the right lawyer for them if they felt $100.00 was an unreasonable amount for an hour of my time. One guy fumed about how rude I was to not hike my ass back to the office and meet with him for free right away. Another guy sent [Matt’s partner] Adrian an email saying I should be fired. Adrian says the complaint is still under review by the firm’s human resources department.

By the time I was done with my vacation, I had scheduled six initial consultations for last week, my first week back. One was with someone who’d called during the first four weeks, but the remaining five were with callers I’d spoken with after more calls started coming in.

What could have caused this sudden surge in popularity?  Matt made six appointments for these “leads” and “prospects” to meet with perfection.

Last week, five people failed to show up for their appointments without so much as a call. When I called them afterwards, I got to hear the full gamut of reasons why people can’t be reached. “The Cricket customer you are calling is not accepting calls at this time.” “The number you are calling is no longer in service.” You name it, I heard it. The one no-show I did reach said he’d hired a “TV lawyer.” He didn’t think I might want to know that he wasn’t going to make the consultation we’d set. The one very pleasant gentleman who made his appointment and retained me was the first consultation I had scheduled. He was a referral from a former client.

That’s one out of six. One who showed. One who retained him. A week ago, I spoke with a fellow who called me after finding me on Avvo.  He had a real case. He had a case that interested me. I explained to him that I do not give free consultations, and he had no problem with it. I made an appointment to see him two days hence. 

At the appointed time, I sat there awaiting this potential new client.  Fifteen minutes later, playing spider solitaire unsuccessfully on my computer, I called to find out if there was a delay.  It took him a moment to remember who I was, and then he apologized.  He told me he retained another lawyer the day before.  I told that was fine, but asked him why he didn’t call me to tell me he would not make our appointment.  His voice turned sheepish, and he responded that he thought that was just the way things worked for lawyers.  Our call was over.

By my calculus, it takes 1000 calls from people who find you on the internet to get one person whose case I would take. The marketeers don’t see this as a problem, and their promise isn’t to get you clients, but “leads” and “prospects.”  What you do with them afterward is up to you, not them. 

But the same people who use the internet to find a lawyer are the ones who are taught by companies like Avvo that lawyers’ time has no value. They teach that lawyers answer questions for free. They teach that a person in need of a lawyer for his public urination case should contact 10, 20, 30 lawyers to find the right one for them. And while they include the caveat buried somewhere off to the side, below the grinning image of the lawyer who is paying to have his advertisement show up on your Avvo page, that the ratings shouldn’t be the sole basis for hiring a lawyer.

But then, who wouldn’t prefer to hire a lawyer with a perfect rating.  Like Matt Brown. Like me.

By my calculations, I will now have to turn away another 999 “leads’ before I hear from a client whose case interests me.  But I can’t afford to waste another hour of my practice on an appointment where the “prospect” doesn’t show.  I have work to do for clients who retain me based on referrals from other clients or lawyers, and the time lost to those who find me on the internet is stolen from me and never recovered.

If I feel like killing an hour of my time, maybe I’ll use it to walk America like Matt.  And when I come home, I’ll listen to my messages and ponder how best to use my time.