Fake Arizona Divorce Lawyer Sentenced to 15 years

A man who defrauded divorcing couples out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while impersonating a lawyer was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court. Gary Karpin, 57, was convicted last month of 23 counts of theft and one count of fraud. Operating under the business name "Divorce with Dignity", Karpin billed nearly $300,000 to 25 victims.

Its a shame that this kind of fraud could take place. If you are looking for an experienced Arizona divorce lawyer, here is a list of "real" Phoenix area family lawyers & law firms. All are licensed by the State Bar of Arizona - I checked!!

Law Offices Of Scott David Stewart, Lasiter & Jackson, Bishop & Martin, The Law Offices of John R. Gaertner PC, Viles Law Offices LLC, Gillespie & Shields & Associates, Law Office of Rebecca Owen PLLC, The Law Offices of Wendy Raquel Hernandez, Platt & Westby, Boates & Crump, Warner Angle Hallam Jackson & Formanek PLC, Sampair & Waldrip PC, Singer Pistiner PC, Robaina & Palomino, Judith A. Morse PC, Cates Hanson Sargeant & Rakestraw PLC, Paula J. Burnstein PC, John P. Moore, Davis Limited, The Law Office of Scott J. McWilliams LLC, Deloughery Law Office PC, Bruce D. Brown PLLC, Mathew & Associates

1-800-goog411

Leave it to Google to come up with something like this!!! Here's a number worth putting in your cell phone, or your home phone speeddial: 1-800-goog411. This is an awesome service from Google, and it's free-- great when you are on the road. Don't waste your money on information calls and don't waste your time manually dialing the number. I am driving along in my car and I need to call a local real estate attorney I don't know the number. I hit the speed dial for information that I have programmed. The voice at the other end says, 'City & State.' I say, 'Scottsdale , Arizona.' He says, 'Business, Name or Type of Service.' I say, Law Offices of Joseph Velez..' He says, 'Connecting' and the law firm answers the phone. How great is that? This is nationwide and it is absolutely free! Click on or cut and paste the link below and watch the short clip for a quick demonstration. http://www.google.com/goog411

Online Reputation Management

Do you know what comes up when you Google your name? My collegeaue Eric Bersano recently wrote an informative article on the subject in his Los Angeles Marketing BLOG. As an attorney its important that you are aware of what comes up. While you don't have complete control over what comes up in Google, you can be proactive. At a minimum, I recommend that attorneys take full advantage of all of the following online profiles.

FindLaw Attorney Profile Martin J. Solomon
Ziki Profile Howard Kornberg
Hotfrog Profile Glitsos, Kratter & Associates
Naymz Profile Scott David Stewart
MerchantCircle Profile Lasiter & Jackson
FindLaw Firm Profile Law Office of Rebecca Owen PLLC
AVVO Profile Steve Leshner

The End of Yellow Pages?

Its a bad time to be in the yellow page business. Sales of print advertising is down dramatically, the stock price of the two leading publishers have dropped 99% in the last year, and earlier this week the nation's leading financial publication published an article titled "Extinction Threatens Yellow Page Publishers". Ouch!

Perhaps most damning is the article's repudiation of the Yellow Page's internet strategy - long hailed by the industry to be its savior. With Yellow Page reps making more money selling the costlier print advertising, the article cites this conflict as the primary reason for anemic online sales. While that may be a contributing factor, I think the main issue is that their internet offerings don't work - at least in the legal space. I have had many clients that were listed in the various yellow page online directories. In almost every case the client cancelled after seeing the traffic numbers. People simply don't go to the Internet to use the online yellow pages. They use search engines! I did have a Phoenix family lawyer that saw an incredible increase in traffic after contracting with one of the Yellow Page companies. He was guaranteed 800 clicks a month and he definitely got them. The problem was that most of his clicks came from out of state. To meet their click thru goal, the YP company listed the Phoenix lawyer in all of their directories nationwide.

Sadly I have come to find out that this was not an isolated incident. Matt McClenahen, a Pennsylvania criminal lawyer, shares his experience;

"When I complained to the Yellow Page company that they expected me to pay $650 a month, when I was getting less than 20 clicks per month, they solved that problem by marketing my law firm nationally, even though I am licensed to practice law only in one state. Funny as it may sound, they started marketing my site in all the states that begin with the letter "I." So suddenly one day, I started receiving calls about people busted for selling meth in Iowa, drunk driving in Indiana, domestic violence in Illinois, etc. When I asked these callers how they got my name, they said that they did a search for criminal defense attorneys in their area, but that my site came up on the right hand side of the screen. They were usually shocked to hear that I was hundreds or thousands of miles away, because they had not bothered to read the basic information on my site, such as my location. Fortunately, only a small percentage of people who clicked on my site through the Yellow Pages pay-per-click scam wasted my time by calling, as most people were astute enough to read my site before calling and were smart enough to realize that an attorney in Pennsylvania would not likely be taking cases in Idaho."

To date, one of the main offerings of the Yellow Page companies is simply a pay-per-click program, which businesses can sign up for on their own at a fraction of the price. Most Yellow Page companies simply buy these clicks from search engines like Google and Yahoo and then mark up the price far above the normal pay-per-click rate. I can't see how they can stay viable using this model.

The Power of Directories

This Thursday November 20th, FindLaw marketing will be doing a free webcast on the "Power of Directories". The one hour online webcast will cover;

• How consumers with a legal need use the Internet to research their options and hire a lawyer.
• The various types of directory advertising available, from free listings to paid placements, and how they differ in content.
• How to choose a directory that connects with a qualified audience who fits your customer profile.
• Strategies for using directories to build brand awareness. Learn how online directories can benefit your firm whether you have an existing Internet presence or not.

The webcast will feature an Arizona lawyer! Deshon Pullen, a Phoenix family lawyer will be speaking about her experience with FindLaw and specifically about her experience with the FindLaw directory. If your interested in attending this seminar you can register for free here.

Is Your Domain Secure?

This is an important question and one that you need to be aware of. The name of your URL or domain name is typically hosted somewhere like Go Daddy, Network Solutions, or Register.com. When you have a site with Findlaw, we will host your site but not your URL. That is, when you have a site with us you are pointing your URL to our servers. Therefore, you will need to keep up the hosting of the domain name. If you allow your URL host to expire your site will go down or worse, you may lose your domain altogether.

Unfortunately this happened to a client of mine recently. The client had an old url with a decent page rank. As soon as the URL expired it was snatched up by a Russian company who is now using the established domain name to sell over the counter drugs. When this happens, you are the mercy of the new owner who may try to extort you - asking for an outrageous amount of money to get your url back.

Solution: Lockin in your domain hosting for as long as possible. I tell my clients to lockin for 10 years if possible. Besides getting a better rate, you will avoid the possibility of losing your URL. If your site does go down - take immediate steps to lock in the URL.

JIGSAW.com - Add Your Site

Make sure your firm and website URL are both listed in http://www.jigsaw.com/ This is a powerful free online database that is showing up in search results. Start an account (its free) and submit a company (yours).

If you want to check and see if you are already listed follow these simple steps;

(1) Go to www.jigsaw.com , click on "About Jigsaw," read about the company, then click on "Free Company Data" on the left hand navigation.

(2) Click on the "Download Free Company Data" bar near the bottom of the page.
Sort the information by Country, State, Metro area if applicable, Area Code and or Zip Code, Industry-Business Services, Sub-Industry-Legal Services, Employees 0-25 and 25-100, and Website type (Select "All"). Click "Search."

Online Gambling Charges Dismissed - William Foreman

Last week the Arizona Republic ran a story about the unraveling of a major gambling case. The case began to unravel when Criminal defense attorney Bill Foreman wrote a motion to dismiss on behalf of one of the of the alleged "ring leaders". The successful motion led to charges being dropped for 9 other defendants in the large online gambling case. More than 30 defendants faced 130 felony and 80 misdemeanor counts for placing and collecting on bets conducted through Costa Rican Web sites.

Bill's client was one of the first two defendants to have his case remanded because the prosecutor was unable to answer the questions Foreman's motion brought up, specifically questions as to the legality of online gaming in Costa Rica, where the Web sites are located. The Arizona Republic quoted Bill Foreman;

"The actions for which (my client) is accused are lawful and are controlled by an emerging body of federal, state and international law which should have been studied in detail before bringing this case before a grand jury."

Certified by the State Bar of Arizona as a Criminal Law Specialist, William Foreman handles complex white collar criminal defense cases throughout Arizona.

FindLaw Design Portfolio!!

The new FindLaw design portfolio is now live!! You can access the site at http://www.findlawdesign.com/ The interactive site allows you to view the work of specific designers and allows you to sort designs by theme; traditional, modern, high concept, vintage, or minimal.

Accelerated Web Presence (AWP)

For those clients who come to FindLaw without an existing web site, we have an elegant solution. The Accelerated Web Presence or (AWP) is meant to give you firm an instant web presence, while your firmsite is being built. I have provided an example.

Its important that you check your AWP as soon as it goes up. Some things to look out for;

• Be sure to check if relevant practice areas and geography are included. Contact me or the project manager if you think something important is missing.
• Until your site is online (1-4 months depending on the site) the AWP will be the face of your company. It is critical then, that the phone number and address are correct. Again, please contact me or the PM if you find an error.
• -You can expect an AWP to go up a week after the order has been processed. Since processing often takes a few days, you should expect your AWP to be online in a week in a half.
• -There are currently just two design options for the AWP; Scales of Justice and an image of two hands shaking.

Pasadena CA - Beautiful House For Sale

Fantastic property in the heart of beautiful Pasadena, CA. Attorney is motivated to sell. Listing Details include pictures of all rooms!

UPDATE!! This house recently sold for $850,000 - congratulations