I signed up for Avvo. I've also done Lawyers.com. LegalMatch is superb as compared to them. With LegalMatch I generate about five clients a month. I couldn’t tell you the last time I signed-up someone with Lawyers.com. With Avvo I never know if they’re contacting me because they saw me on the Avvo website or if they’re calling me from doing a little bit of research.
LegalMatch has helped me build up my clientele. I went out on my own a year ago, using my name for client recognition. Since I joined LegalMatch last May 2019, I've been getting a handful of potential legal clients per month, so it's paying for itself. From the time I joined LeglMatch, I probably got about 20 clients in just 6 months. LegalMatch helps me get new clients that I wouldn’t normally have heard from. It’s helping my bottom line.
I would recommend LegalMatch. I know another lawyer I referred signed up. He’s a buddy of mine. He went out on his own. He does Civil cases. I told him ”Look, I don’t know what LegalMatch does with Personal Injury and Worker’s Comp. I’ve done it for Criminal Law. I’m getting clients and it’s beneficial. It is pricier than other places, but if you could get the clients, it pays for itself. From one of the first clients that I got from LegalMatch, I was able to pay for my whole year membership. Everything that I get after that is money in my pocket.” He’s been very thankful. He’s done well with LegalMatch.
I signed up for Avvo. They'll put you on their website and try to get you within their system. I've also done Lawyers.com. LegalMatch is superb as compared to them. With LegalMatch I generate about five clients a month. I couldn’t tell you the last time I signed-up someone with Lawyers.com. With Avvo I never know if they’re contacting me because they saw me on the Avvo website or if they’re calling me from doing a little bit of research.
With Google, you pay for the ad service. For me, LegalMatch is beneficial because I won’t have to compete with the thousands of other attorneys that are going to be generated with a Google search. LegalMatch gets me directly one-on-one with a potential client. I'm not competing against the mass-market of attorneys.
Clients post their case through LegalMatch because they trust the website. So as a LegalMatch member attorney, I have to sell myself as a higher status attorney. They can just Google and search for the nearest attorney. But they go to LegalMatch because they trust LegalMatch. I usually give discounts to clients I get from LegalMatch.
I try to make it a point that as soon as a new case notification pops up, I connect with the client right away. Even if it's just a question, I always make sure I take the time to respond. They may not hire me instantly. Although some of them are just looking for answers to their legal questions, but overall, it's a good experience. If an issue comes up, they’ll come back to me and eventually hire me because they remember my name and they know that I responded to their questions.
In my experience, every client that I've spoken with is very appreciative of me being able to respond to them. As soon as they post their case, I call them right away. They usually say to me that they didn't think I’d call that quick.
Just being on top of it and responding - that's what the clients want. They're in dire need of assistance and by waiting a day or two or weeks, it doesn't help them. They're directly looking for a quick legal response. I've been able to give that to them. Because of that, I’ve been retained by them.
If anybody asks me, I basically say that as soon as the new case email notification pops up, you've got to respond. Let the clients know that you’ve looked at their profile. You’ve got to respond quickly to set yourself apart from everyone else. Promptness is the key.
The other thing that benefited me was customizing templates. I always try to customize the title and the content everytime I send a reply. It helps that I revamp my templates. You've got to make it more personalized. I sell myself uniquely. I went through the templates and I changed them. When clients read those, I get a lot of comments that they looked at my response. I know LegalMatch has default templates and they’re nice to use as a starting basis but I noticed that once I changed them, I was getting a lot more feedback and high ratings. I did it uniquely to fit my areas of expertise.
I use the LegalMatch Attorney mobile app. That's something I would say that new attorneys should get. It is convenient because I can see on my phone when I get a notification for a new case. It tells me a brief synopsis and the title of the case. If it's something that I'm very interested in, it's easy even on my phone to get it and respond. Obviously, I can't be in front of my computer 24/7 so getting new cases through the app is awesome because I'm alerted right away. I can deal with the notifications and be even further ahead than other attorneys in my area trying to win the same client.