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Running SueEasy Turned Out to Be Not So Easy
Remember SueEasy.com? It's the lawyer/client matching Web site service with a twist: It allowed potential litigants to publicly post grievances and wait for responses from lawyers with offers to represent them, and also enabled users to search for class actions to join in with other litigants. It launched in spring of 2008 with much criticism from the lawyers around the blogosphere, who described it as "Shangri-La for ambulance chasers" or the "worst lawyer idea ever." Blogger Luke Gilman of The Blawgraphy publicly wondered whether the site would ever get off the ground.
Turns out Gilman was right to be skeptical. SueEasy.com is now up for auction, reports Mitch Kowalski at National Post. According to the site's "Value Proposition," SueEasy is a bargain. Potential benefits include access to "Over 5000 registered litigants," and "Over 2000 pending cases in our SueEasy virtual docket, including 500 potentially multi-million dollar class actions." Not only that, but SueEasy also says that the site attracts litigants who are "are evangelists, activists and brand ambassadors." Reviewing the public case postings, I couldn't figure out what kind of "brand ambassadors" these litigants might be, except perhaps poster children for tort reform.
So if SueEasy.com is really the "once in a lifetime branding opportunity" that the site claims, why is it on the chopping block? Perhaps it's because the site isn't as popular as SueEasy suggests. A review of statistics at Compete.com shows that after SueEasy's initial launch, when it generated 21,000 visits in a month, the site has leveled off to an average of 4,500 visits per month, which is hardly high volume. The low traffic numbers are corroborated by Alexa, which ranks SueEasy at 1,350,987 in traffic; by contrast, Legal Blog Watch scores a 216,258 rank.
Still, the auction site (enter "auction" as the password) suggests that there's interest in SueEasy. As of this morning, the high bid for the site was $63,500.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on September 2, 2009 at 03:05 PM | Permalink
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