I received an invitation from the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys to be listed as “one of the 10 Best Personal Injury Law Attorneys for Client Satisfaction in Maryland”. For this unsolicited honor, all I had to do was pay a $275 membership fee. In return, I would receive an engraved plaque with my name.
I declined the offer for two reasons. First, a Maryland attorney should never use superlatives, such as “top”, “super”, “premier, “best”, “most aggressive” or “most successful”, because it is almost impossible for the lawyer to factually substantiate such claims. My advice to clients is to disregard all print and internet advertising that claims that the attorney is “super”, “best”, “top”, “greatest”, or “most” when searching for an attorney in Montgomery County and/or Maryland.
Secondly, any ranking or rating systems of lawyers is inherently misleading. There is no scientific validity to the selection and rating process used to identify these so-called super, best, or top lawyers. In fact, the legal disclaimer for American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys acknowledges that its selection system is useless:
