Avvo Answers: Shut Up and Put Down the Weapon

In my original, admittedly harsh, assessment of Avvo Answers, an effort by my dear friend Mark Britton to get eyeballs to his marketing website with the promise of free legal advice, my conclusion for lawyers was pretty clear:

Here's the moral right up front:  Don't let incompetency or ethical challenges impair the desire for personal gain when it comes to a business model. 

To the credit of the profession, most did the right thing in responding to a question posed at Avvo.

Can I pursue probation without verdict?

Asked 1 day ago - Pittsburgh, PA

The house I was staying at was raided. I am a student who was living in the dorms last semester, had a lease signed for a house beginning June 1st. Between then I was living at my friend's house, and also my girlfriend's house. Found in the house that was raided was 7lbs of marijuana, xanax, and five ounces MDMA. I was charged with everything possession of the three and intent to deliver marijuana and MDMA. The marijuana and xanax was in a safe and was not mine. I had no contact with it at all. Three ounces of MDMA belonged to me, however, lab tests will confirm that it is not MDMA. I believe it will come up as a synthetic cathinone. A warrant is out for the owner of the marijuana and xanax. I was told those charges will be dropped from me as soon as he confesses to owning them.

Lawyers have a special word for questions posed in this fashion. It's called a confession. One might suppose that the young person asking the question would appreciate this, but then, this is all about getting free legal advice, and how can any lawyer provide competent advice without knowing the critical details, like guilt?

This person got nine responses from attorneys, all saying pretty much the same thing. Shut up and get a lawyer.  As Charles Thomas added:

As my colleagues said, you should stopping so much info on this site. I just Googled the facts you gave and I found news articles about this bust (believe me, 7 pounds of weed is pretty Google-able).

Stop talking to anyone who isn't your lawyer — that includes co-defendants, friends, parents, AVVO, Facebook, or Twitter.

One miracle of technology is that a person can pose a question on the internet and get lawyers to respond. Another miracle is that someone can Google the information and find out who just confessed to a crime. Cool, right?

This prompted Leo Mulvihill to offer some free advice at Philly Law Blog.

So if you’re a criminal defendant, or a potential criminal defendant, do the following:

1. Shut up.
2. Don’t post on about your case on the internet. This means Avvo, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, Grindr — WHATEVER.
3. Call an attorney immediately.
4. Did I mention SHUT UP?

Talking on the internet cannot help you. It can, and will, only hurt your case.

What does this mean for Avvo Answers? Everybody loves free. Most, however, do not love being convicted.  Despite the sweet sounds of the Reinvent the Future of the New Normal Law choir, this is the ugly side of their beloved technology, the Utopian vision of everyone having the capability to pretend to be a lawyer, the false god of transparency. 

The reality is that if you give a loaded weapon to children, they will eventually figure out how to use it.  Chances are they will get hurt.  You can hold hands and pray to the tech gods all you want, but it's not going to make this confession go away.







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