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THE API REPORT CARD / Legal / Avvo
Avvo

Avvo API

avvo.com

A documented partner API (v4) exists at api.avvo.com covering lawyer lookup, search, specialties, and reviews. Access is granted by emailing partner@avvo.com with quote-driven pricing and no self-serve signup. No webhooks, sandbox, rate-limit docs, or maintained SDKs.

Last verified: July 2026Legal
API GRADE
B
VERIFIED JUL 2026

SCORECARD

ExistenceGOODA documented REST API at api.avvo.com/api/4 with a public reference hosted at avvo.github.io/api-doc.
AccessPOORPartner approval via email to partner@avvo.com; pricing is undisclosed, quote-driven, and there is no self-serve signup.
CoverageGOODLawyer lookup and bulk retrieval, natural-language search, practice-area taxonomy, and review reads plus lawyer responses.
AuthGOODOAuth2 bearer tokens for third-party apps, with short-lived JWTs (about 20 minutes) for lawyer-scoped operations.
Docs & DXPOORNo sandbox, rate-limit docs, SLA, or status page; the only SDK is a Ruby client unmaintained for years.
StabilityGOODThe core API is versioned (v4, with v5 for JWT-secured endpoints), though no deprecation policy is published.
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Supergood: Avvo shipped a real API. Most vendors don't; we ship near-native APIs for the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Avvo scores B on the API Report Card. A documented partner API (v4) exists at api.avvo.com covering lawyer lookup, search, specialties, and reviews. Access is granted by emailing partner@avvo.com with quote-driven pricing and no self-serve signup. No webhooks, sandbox, rate-limit docs, or maintained SDKs.

Tried to integrate with Avvo?
SOURCES
API access is partner-gated via email to partner@avvo.com, no self-serve developer signup that immediately returns production credentials avvo.com ↗
No public webhooks for new leads, profile changes, new reviews, peer endorsements or rating updates, partners must poll avvo.github.io ↗
No published rate-limit documentation, no SLA and no public status page for the Avvo API avvo.github.io ↗
No public sandbox / test environment; partner builds must use production credentials and live data avvo.github.io ↗
No first-party SDKs for Node, Python, Go, Java, PHP or .NET; the only published SDK is the avvo/avvo_api Ruby client which has not received substantive maintenance in years github.com ↗
Pricing for partner API access is undisclosed and quote-driven, with no published partner tiers avvo.com ↗
API surface is read-mostly directory data plus a narrow review-response POST, no programmatic access to Q&A, legal guides, peer endorsements, Avvo Rating components, lead history, lead-credit requests or billing avvo.github.io ↗
No public bulk data export or data feed for directory, rating or review data; large-scale consumers resort to scraping apify.com ↗
Avvo Legal Services and Avvo Advisor, the only true transactional / payment-rails surfaces, were retired in 2018, eliminating any programmable booking / fee / fixed-service API surface attorneyatwork.com ↗
The historical avvo/avvo_api Ruby client predates the Internet Brands acquisition and is not in step with the current Martindale-Avvo product surface (Leads Manager, Connect, Complete Profile Plus) github.com ↗
Cross-property unification (Avvo + Martindale + Lawyers.com + Nolo) is implemented via the Martindale-Avvo Connect UI, not via a single documented public API a third party could call martindale-avvo.com ↗
Existing 'integrations' are limited to: copy-paste HTML rating badge embeds, the Whippy.ai connector, sales-managed Martindale-Nolo to Clio Grow Lead Inbox, and email/SMS/phone lead delivery from the Leads Manager, not a robust marketplace whippy.ai ↗
Internet Brands' broader portfolio (WebMD, Henry Schein One, Demandforce) does not surface a unified developer platform that exposes Avvo programmatically, so even sister-property partners cannot consume Avvo data programmatically internetbrands.com ↗
Attorneys cannot programmatically pull or export their own profile content, peer endorsements, client reviews, lead history or rating component breakdown, updates and exports are manual through Connect martindale-avvo.com ↗
No published OAuth scopes catalog, no public consent-screen documentation and no published deprecation policy for the Avvo API v4 → v5 transition avvo.github.io ↗
Attorneys widely accuse Avvo of protecting paying attorneys at the expense of consumers, selectively removing negative client reviews after attorney disputes for vague 'lack of factual evidence' reasons trustpilot.com ↗
Avvo holds a TrustPilot score of ~1.9/5 reflecting heavy consumer dissatisfaction with the review-moderation and lead-quality experience trustpilot.com ↗
Multiple state bars (NJ, NY, PA, SC, OH, VA and others) issued ethics opinions against Avvo Legal Services finding the per-service 'marketing fee' to be an impermissible fee split with non-lawyers and an unauthorized referral arrangement, contributing to Avvo Legal Services' 2018 shutdown americanbar.org ↗
Avvo Legal Services and Avvo Advisor were both retired in 2018 after the Internet Brands acquisition, eliminating Avvo's only true transactional / payment-rails surface attorneyatwork.com ↗
Sales-led contracts for Avvo Pro / Pro Plus / Sponsored Listings are described in BBB and Reddit complaints as fraudulently induced (account managers promising leads that never materialized) with long contract commitments and friction unwinding bbb.org ↗
The Avvo Rating algorithm is proprietary and opaque; attorneys with strong client outcomes but limited online resume signals (publications, speaking, peer endorsements) report unexpectedly low scores inoriseo.com ↗
Auto-generated unclaimed profiles can carry stale, incorrect or outdated bar / contact / practice-area data sourced from state bars; the attorney has no way to delete the profile and must claim it to correct avvo.com ↗
Attorneys cannot selectively delete individual negative client reviews, only public response, 'Report Abuse' for policy violations, or wholesale suppression of all reviews is available avvo.com ↗
Pay-to-play perception: paid Sponsored Listings appear above organic search results, eroding consumer trust in the 'top lawyers near me' surface ollyolly.com ↗
Lead-credit refund requests for invalid / duplicate / wrong-practice-area leads are narrowly gated and frequently rejected per attorney reports martindale-avvo.com ↗
The 2018 Internet Brands acquisition consolidated Avvo with Martindale, Lawyers.com, Nolo and LawInfo, reducing competition in the U.S. legal directory market and concentrating pricing power deweybstrategic.com ↗
Q&A forum has been criticized for low-signal answers, attorneys answering outside their jurisdiction or competence for SEO benefit, and difficulty for consumers in evaluating answer quality sitejabber.com ↗
420+ negative consumer reviews on Sitejabber detail review-moderation issues, lead-quality complaints from attorneys, and aggressive sales tactics sitejabber.com ↗
Declining brand relevance: Google Local Service Ads, Google Business Profile and modern review platforms have eroded standalone marketing ROI of an Avvo Pro listing kevin.lexblog.com ↗
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