Legal Research

"A Video Matching Site for Lawyers and Clients"

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi: "A new video site wants to play matchmaker for lawyers and clients. The idea behind LegalTube is to help potential clients find the right lawyer by letting them view videos of the lawyers discussing themselves and their areas of practice.

"LegalTube is the only legal directory where finding a lawyer or the answers to your law-related questions is as easy as channel surfing," the site promises. "It's a way to connect attorneys and potential clients by offering 'face time' in the comfort of your living room."

The site is just getting started and has only a handful of videos, from what I could see. Search for a personal injury lawyer in California and there is only one video, for a firm in Newport Beach. The same search for Texas yields just two firms, each with one video. For most states, the search turns up no firms or videos. Instead, potential clients are invited to fill out a form and have LegalTube arrange for an attorney to respond

Another section of the site is designed to feature videos of lawyers answering common legal questions. Again, there is not much here yet. The PI section has two Q&A videos, both from the same Alabama lawyer. Most other sections had no videos, just a message saying that the section has "no Expert Q&A" yet. 

It isn't all business at LegalTube. The site includes three sections of videos described as "arresting entertainment": Law Laughs, in which lawyers tell lawyer jokes and relate courtroom bloopers; Law Tales, where lawyers tell "strange but true stories" from their practices; and Law After Dark, described as "our original webisode reality series that follows night court judges and the very real cases they encounter." The three episodes posted so far show what appears to be an actual night court judge in Alabama as he confronts such situations as a man who wore shorts to court and a woman who can't seem to understand why she shouldn't drive without a license. 

Although there is not much here yet, it certainly makes sense for lawyer directories to match videos with profiles. Videos let potential clients get a sense of the lawyer in a way that simple text never could. Plenty of lawyers have already discovered this with videos on YouTube. Take those YouTube-style videos and arrange them by city, state and practice area, and you could have something useful for consumers. This site is not there yet, but it might be heading in the right direction."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 29 September 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on September 30, 2009 (boomark / email).