Avvo wins fight over website’s status as a listing service

Commercial Litigation

By Paul B. Porvaznik

Paul B. Porvaznik is an attorney at Davis, McGrath LLC and practices primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, landlord-tenant law, mechanic’s liens and post-judgment enforcement.

Posted October 24, 2016 2:06 PM

In its decade old existence, Avvo Inc., an “online legal services marketplace,” has been no stranger to controversy.Private attorneys and bar associations alike have objected to its business model and practices — some filing defamation lawsuits while others have publicly demanded that Avvo stop “scraping” attorneys’ data from various sources without their consent.Vrdolyak v. Avvo Inc. is the latest installment of a lawyer suing Avvo; this time challenging Avvo-pro, the online directory …

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