TechLaw

To gather detailed and often hard-to-find information on attorneys, Avvo scoured state courts, bar associations and lawyers' websites to collect information on lawyers' experience, practice areas, professional achievements and disciplinary sanctions.

Avvo press release, June 5, 2007

In Illinois at least, Avvo's scouring days are over. Not only did the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission succeed in blocking lawyer marketing site Avvo's request for the master list of state-licensed attorneys, the ARDC earlier this month also changed the terms of use on its Web site to forbid datamining.

It seems that ARDC officials were more than a little miffed at Avvo general counsel Josh King's June 11 boast about Avvo's data mining prowess ("Of course, we've got a little internet and data mining expertise here at Avvo, so we were able to access most of the attorney records in the ARDC site ...."), which he made at the same time Avvo was negotiating for official release of the ARDC's master roll. A few week's later, the ARDC added the following paragraph to its Web site terms of use:

5. NOTICE AND TERMS OF USE: You are not authorized to access or query our database through the use of high-volume, automated, electronic processes or for the purpose or purposes of using the data in any manner that violates these terms of use. The Data in the ARDC database is provided by ARDC for information purposes only, and to assist persons in obtaining information about or related to the registration and discipline of lawyers licensed to practice in Illinois. ARDC does not guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a query, you agree to abide by the following terms of use: You agree that you may use this Data only for lawful purposes and that under no circumstances will you use this Data for commercial purposes or to: (1) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via direct mail, e-mail, telephone, or facsimile; or (2) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that apply to ARDC (or its computer systems). The compilation, repackaging, dissemination or other use of this Data is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of ARDC. You agree not to use high-volume, automated, electronic processes to access or query the ARDC database. ARDC reserves all rights and remedies it now has or may have in the future, including, but not limited to, the right to terminate your access to the ARDC database in its sole discretion, for any violations by you of these terms of use, including without limitation, for excessive querying of the ARDC database or for failure to otherwise abide by these terms of use. ARDC reserves the right to modify these terms at any time.

Illinois court rules forbid the use of the master roll of state-licensed attorneys for commercial uses except continuing legal education programs. Avvo argued, unsuccessfully, that the use it was making of the attorney records (basically a name and address used to create a skeleton Web page) was not a commercial use. Reading the ARDC's submission to the Illinois Supreme Court, I came away with the impression that the commission was peeved that Avvo had been helping itself to attorney registration information without permission. And not very impressed with the use Avvo was making of this information.

As far as I can tell, Illinois is the only jurisdiction to forbid datamining/spidering of their attorney registration data.

Most of the attorney registration Web sites I looked at contain no limitation whatsoever on use or automated access to their data. Looking at Web sites such as the California Bar Association, the Georgia Bar Association, the Massachusetts Board of Overseers, the State Bar of Michigan, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Disciplinary Board, and the Washington State Bar Association, it is easy to see how a large database of attorney names and addresses could be quickly amassed. On nearly all of the Web sites I checked, querying the Web site with the character "S" in the last name field returned all attorneys whose last name begins with "S." A good Web spidering program ought to be even more efficient.