Is Martindale-Hubbell really relied on most often to find an attorney?

Martindale-Hubbell issued a press release last week claiming ‘Individuals, Companies Rely On Martindale-Hubbell Most Often to Find an Attorney.’

The basis of Martindale’s claim is the 2007 comScore Media Metrix monthly reports measuring traffic patterns at competing online attorney directories. Per the press release, ‘comScore reported more combined unique visitors to Martindale-Hubbell sites martindale.com(R) and lawyers.com(SM) than competing directories when seeking a lawyer.’

Nicholas Karrat, Sr. Director, Traffic & Alliances for Martindale, went on to say:

Consumers, small business professionals, lawyers, and corporate counsel seeking a lawyer or lawyer referral rely on online resources designed specifically for their needs, and the results of the comScore reports show that when these individuals go online to look for legal assistance, they turn to martindale.com and lawyers.com.

Google is the biggest competition Martindale-Hubbell has. I emailed LexisNexis PR Manager, Holly Michael, last Saturday asking if Google was one of the competing online attorney directories included in the survey results? No answer yet. Perhaps someone from Martindale will comment here providing an answer.

If Google is not included in the results, you have to question Martindale’s assertion that when individuals go online to look for legal assistance, they turn to martindale.com and lawyers.com. The goal in issuing such a press release should be to provide lawyers an accurate picture of online searches for a lawyer, not to demonstrate you get more traffic than Findlaw.

If someone truly wanted to show lawyers where individuals and corporations go online to look for a lawyer, including Google in your report is a no brainer.