August 29th, 2011 by Josh King, VP of Business Development and General Counsel

---

As any Avvo user knows, professional profiles include any discipline imposed by licensing bodies. Suspensions, probations, licensing conditions – if the State Medical Board, State Bar or other licensing authority has imposed discipline, we will include it in the doctor or lawyer’s profile.

What are people not always aware of? First, Avvo does not have a direct feed into state discipline systems. There is a lag time between when discipline is imposed and when it is reflected in an Avvo profile. And second, we’re scrupulous about only including final discipline. We do not publish complaints or allegations. And we don’t include criminal or civil penalties, unless and until they result in discipline. We made the decision long ago to not substitute our judgment for that of the licensing authorities.

Given the delay inherent in the system, we greatly appreciate it when members of the public bring professional discipline to our attention prior to our update process picking it up. We’ll quickly confirm it with the licensing authority and then update the profile on an ad hoc basis.

However, it’s important to keep our point about professional discipline in mind. Just because you believe a professional is less-than-ethical or has a shady background is not going to cause Avvo to change that professional’s profile. We’ll screen the information to make sure there’s no professional discipline we’ve missed, but that’s the end of it.

The Avvo Rating is simply a starting point for hiring a professional, and is based on a combination of peer review and objective information in a professional’s background (including discipline). Subjective concerns can be handled by leaving a review online detailing your experience, or by making a complaint to the licensing authorities. Just don’t expect us to weigh and consider the evidence you’ve sent us. We’re not the licensing authorities. But if you let us know the minute final discipline is imposed, we will promptly update a profile to reflect it. We promise.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 29th, 2011 at 9:50 am by Josh King, VP of Business Development and General Counsel and is filed under Josh King Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.