Solicitors have given a resounding thumbs-down to the use of legal marketing Web sites to gain client leads, research revealed last week.

In a survey of around 60 law firms by the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers, only one firm said it had gained a positive benefit from the marketing sites.


Legal marketing sites attract the public by providing free legal information or using techniques to ensure they feature high up on search engine rankings. Some of the sites are specialised to certain areas of the law such as divorce or personal injury, while others are more general.


The marketing sites then charge firms a fee for passing on the client leads they generate. However, solicitors complained that the leads were generally of poor quality.


Internet Newsletter editor Delia Venables, who conducted the survey, said: 'Solicitors are getting fed up with people trying to make money out of them. I was surprised that there was only one positive response about these sites, as there are some good sites out there.


'But solicitors felt that most of them do not offer value for money. They said that the sites do not give them good leads, and the leads they do get are very much at the lowest price. People seem to go to these sights looking for the lowest-cost service, and most solicitors feel it is people looking for free advice. The solicitors are ending up having wasted a lot of time, because they have to make sure they are maintaining their professional standards in the advice they give.'


Meanwhile, Ms Venables and legal publishing consultant Nick Holmes have launched an e-book, 'Whither the Legal Web', in pdf format. Divided into two parts, the first part examines the provision of law on the Web, while the second looks at how the Internet is transforming communications.


Link: www.venables.co.uk