Avvo launches service providing on-demand legal advice for a fixed fee
Avvo Inc., has launched a new on-demand service that provides legal advice at a fixed rate.
In a Monday post at Law Sites, Robert Ambrogi provided details of Avvo’s latest venture, Avvo Advisor. Available as an online tool or through an iOS app, users of Avvo Advisor pay $39 for a 15-minute conversation with an attorney. Users enter their ZIP code and the nature of their legal inquiry before providing their credit card and contact information. Users then get a phone call from an attorney within 15 minutes or they get a refund.
Avvo Advisor currently covers nine areas of law: bankruptcy, criminal, divorce, employment, family, immigration, landlord-tenant, real estate and small business. The service is now available in 15 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. According to Avvo’s press release, the company intends to add both additional areas of law and additional states in the coming months.
“At Avvo, we want to make access to legal help as routine as getting a medical checkup, and Avvo Advisor is a game-changing step towards that goal,” said Mark Britton, Avvo’s founder and CEO, in a press release. “Avvo Advisor provides professional legal help to consumers on their terms, with clear pricing and on-demand delivery, saving significant time, money and hassle—the very things that keep many people from hiring a lawyer.”
Ambrogi states that there’s also a section for attorneys to sign up and be part of the service. Interested lawyers need only a bank account and a mobile phone. Whenever a customer purchases a 15 minute session in a certain practice area, Avvo sends a text message to relevant attorneys located in the customer’s state. The attorney must respond to the text in order to get credit for the call, and then he or she must call the customer within 15 minutes. After the call is completed, the attorney gets the entire $39 fee deposited into his or her bank account.
