1. What are Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™?
Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ reflect a combination of a lawyer's Legal Ability rating and General Ethical Standards rating as provided by their peers.
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General Ethical Standards Rating - This rating indicates a lawyer holds to professional standards for conduct and ethics, including reliability and diligence. Lawyers who do not obtain a "Very High" rating for General Ethical Standards cannot obtain a Peer Review Rating.
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Legal Ability Ratings - Legal Ability ratings show professional ability within a specific area of practice as rated by other lawyers and judges. These ratings are based on performance in five key areas, on a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high). The five areas are:
Legal Knowledge
Analytical Capabilities
Judgment
Communication Ability
Legal Experience
2. What are the different elements on the Peer Review Ratings display?
The presence of a Peer Review Rating shows the lawyer has met the very high criteria of General Ethical Standing and Legal Ability as seen through the eyes of his or her peers..
The Peer Review ratings includes a overall numeric score, a ratings term and may include a Certification mark:
AV® Preeminent™ (4.5-5.0) - An AV® certification mark is a tribute to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him at the highest level of professional excellence
BV® Distinguished™ (3.0-4.4) - The BV® certification mark is an excellent rating for a lawyer with some experience
Rated (1.0-2.9) - The Peer Review Rated designation demonstrates the lawyer has met the very high criteria of General Ethical Standing.
3. How does a lawyer obtain a Peer Review Rating?
After a lawyer has been admitted to a state Bar (based on each state’s rules and regulations) for at least 3 years, and is in “good standing”, Martindale-Hubbell contacts the lawyer to begin the ratings or re-rating process. In fact, 80% of all peer review ratings begin with Martindale randomly selecting lawyer participants and references.
The evaluation and selection process chooses lawyers from the US and Canada, from solo practitioners to members of large law firms, and doesn’t discriminate on the basis of gender, race or age. The lawyer does not have to be a subscriber to be considered for a Peer Review Rating. There is no charge for lawyers to participate in any review or rating process.
A lawyer can nominate their own peer references; in addition, Martindale-Hubbell performs its own research. All reviews conducted are practice-area specific, objective and anonymous. Martindale-Hubbell collects the data, compiles the information and provides the results.
4. Lawyers provide names of lawyers and judges to evaluate them. How does this fit into the Peer Review process?
Lawyers and judges are the best people to provide feedback of the lawyer’s legal ability. The legal community respects the accuracy of the peer review ratings because it knows that its own members are directly involved in the process.
5. Who provides the feedback on the lawyer? Can co-workers give references?
Generally, Martindale selects the lawyers references from the same area of law and in the same general locale as the participant. References are selected from Martindale’s database of listed lawyers for quicker validation of expertise.
If they’re not on Martindale, outreach is made to do further confirmation. A lawyer’s co-workers cannot participate in a specific lawyers peer review ratings process
References must also be admitted to a state Bar for at least 3 years and be in “good standing” to be able to respond.
Peer reference nominees must be:
- Lawyers or judges outside the lawyer's firm or organization
- No more than than two lawyers from any one organization
- Not be a co-worker or from the same organization as the rated lawyer
To ensure a credible process, a lawyer may submit peer references only one time a year, and must include at least 18 peer sources.
6. Why do Peer Review Ratings appear on Lawyers.com?
Peer reviews on Lawyers.com complement Client Review Ratings also found on the site. These reviews are similar to a doctor’s peers rating medical knowledge and skill, while client reviews offer insight to the doctor-patient relationship. These two ratings provide a full view of a lawyer’s skills and consultation abilities.
7. What are Average Peer Review Ratings on Lawyers.com?
The Average Peer Review is the average of all ratings of the firm's individual lawyers.
8. Is an individual required to have a paid listing on Lawyers.com to be rated?
No. Offering accurate, objective ratings for as many lawyers as possible is the goal of the Peer Review Ratings. No money is exchanged for a lawyer to participate in any ratings process. She/He doesn’t even have to be a subscriber.
9. What does it mean if a lawyer is not rated?
Some lawyers request not to have their rating published, and some aren’t ready to obtain a review because they haven’t been practicing long enough to establish a track record, or admitted to the state Bar long enough. Other reasons include practicing in an area of law that has few peers to provide feedback. Not having a rating on a profile shouldn't be seen as unfavorable.
10. Can an attorney choose to delete or suppress a negative review?
An attorney or firm cannot selectively suppress a particular review. However, if they want to suppress a review, then all reviews would be suppressed which is indicated by a message that states ”Ratings Not Shown”. This “all or none” approach ensures an objective, transparent view of the attorney or firm. All suppression requests must be received in writing to ratings@martindale.com or by contacting our Ratings specialists at 800-526-4902, ext. 5000. Ratings display will come down from Lawyers.com and martindale.com within 24-48 hours of request. Once ratings are suppressed by request, they will be suppressed for a minimum of two years.
AV and BV are registered certification marks and AV Preeminent and BV Distinguished are certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc. Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.