Making the grade
by Michelle Lore michelle.lore@minnlawyer.com
3,454 consumers contacted the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota over the past 12 months seeking reports on law firms |
Editor's note: We received a response to this article from the Minneapolis law firm of Bassford | Remele, which can be accessed by clicking here.
It may seem like an unusual way to find out about a lawyer, but more than 3,400 consumers contacted the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota over the past 12 months seeking reports on law firms.
The reports being produced this year differ markedly from last year. Beginning Jan. 1, law firms and other businesses are given letter grades ranging from A+ to F.
Many consumers felt that the prior system of rating businesses as “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” didn’t give them enough information, said Barbara Grieman, vice president and interim acting president for the BBB’s Minnesota/North Dakota branch. She said it took five years to create the expanded rating system and that it went through several test runs before being implemented.
“We try to be as fair as possible,” said Grieman. “Our goal is really to create the most ethical marketplace, where companies and customers have very good relationships. It’s not our goal to shame businesses or to judge them unfairly.”
Reports and ratings Not all businesses are rated. According to Grieman, the BBB only rates those that come to its attention for one reason or another — like the filing of a complaint or a request for a report on a business. To date, of the 57,000 reliability reports created by the BBB’s St. Paul office, approximately 500 are on law firms.
Points are awarded or deducted for each element, with 90 being the maximum score possible. Grades of A through F — with plusses and minuses possible — are given to each business based on the number of points accumulated. A firm may be given “no rating” if the BBB doesn’t have sufficient current information about the company to issue a full report. The BBB does not inform businesses of their letter grade. However, Grieman said that before giving out an “F” rating, the BBB does notify the business and request that it contact them. “We want them to respond,” she said. “It’s our goal not to have any Fs.” Businesses are also given an opportunity to respond to formal complaints. The total number of complaints against attorneys in Minnesota in the past year was 20, which, according to Grieman, is very low. She added that law firms, however, do have an unusually high instance of not returning the BBB’s Standard Business Questionnaire, which helps determine the firm’s rating. As of last week, roughly 9 percent of Minnesota law firms were graded a “C” or lower, which Grieman attributes primarily to an absence of information on the firms.
“As soon as companies return the SBQ or contact us with their basic company information, they will most likely see an increase in their rating,” she said.
Only four firms were given an “F” rating, including Goggins & Lavintman, a debt collection firm in Mendota Heights.
According to Peter Jirik, a partner with the firm, the rating is the result of not being able to answer complaints. As a “debt collector,” he explained, federal law prohibits the firm from responding to or even acknowledging a complaint without the consent of the complaining party.
“We don’t think it’s very fair,” Jirik said, adding that his firm sent the BBB a letter last month outlining their reasons for not responding to the complaints but hasn’t yet heard back from them.
Also given an “F” was Rose & Erickson, which according to Craig Rose, doesn’t exist anymore. He said the rating is probably due to the fact that he does a lot of collection work, which tends to generate “unfounded” complaints from consumers that often don’t merit a response.
“I was not even aware that the Better Business Bureau evaluates law firms,” he added.
Potential problems Despite the time and effort that went into creating the formula used to generate the grades, some attorneys question the overall validity of the BBB’s system. Bemidji attorney Ronald Carpenter’s two-person law firm, Carpenter & Wangberg, was given a B-.
Carpenter told Minnesota Lawyer that not only was he unaware of the rating he was surprised it was so low. “If the criteria include being prompt in paying bills and not being sued and all these other things, then I think I ought to have an A,” he said. “A B- doesn’t sound that good to me.” Bassford Remele attorney Gregory Bulinski, who sits on the firm’s management committee, said that no one in the firm was aware of its “C” grade. He pointed out that the firm has had no complaints filed against it and that the reason for the rating appears to be the fact that the BBB had insufficient information about the firm.
“My perspective is that if you don’t have information to rate someone, why do you rate them?” said Bulinski. “I’m underwhelmed by the level of work they do to gather information.” Bloomington attorney Vince Martin was troubled by the A- rating of what “appears to be” his firm. He pointed out that the firm is listed as Cundy & Paul, despite the fact that Michael Paul is deceased, Cundy & Paul was dissolved, and Cundy & Martin was created a year ago. Martin added that while the BBB report clearly states there were no complaints about the firm, there is no explanation for the A- rating. He doesn’t see any reason for not receiving an even higher grade other than “the fact that Cundy & Paul, LLC did not pay the fee to be BBB accredited.”But Grieman stressed that a company need not become a BBB accredited business in order to earn an “A,” although it is to the business’s advantage to do so. She said that in the past year, nearly 500 consumers asked for the roster of Minnesota law firms that are BBB accredited businesses.
“It shows your customers you’ve agreed to abide by a pretty strict set of ethical standards,” Grieman noted.
Bert McKasy, an attorney with Lindquist & Vennum — a BBB accredited business that was given an A+ rating — admitted that he’s not sure exactly what factors go into the system, but that it’s undoubtedly to the firm’s benefit to be accredited and maintain a good rating.
“If a consumer is looking for someone to provide any kind of goods or services, including legal services, and a firm has a high rating from the Better Business Bureau, I would think it’s certainly a plus in terms of marketing,” he said.
Process questioned
But some attorneys aren’t sure the BBB should be rating law firms at all, in part because the business of law is different from many other businesses.
Martin pointed out that attorneys must comply with licensing and CLE requirements and answer to the lawyer’s board if they do something wrong. In addition, he said, each area of law is extremely specialized.
“Unless the BBB has the necessary knowledge of each particular area and knows the detailed issues confronted in each area, it does not seem that the BBB is in a very good position to rate attorneys,” said Martin.
Bulinski agreed. “I don’t see how the Bureau can go about rating lawyers without using lawyers in the community as a reference,” he said. “They can identify complaints, but that doesn’t really reflect the quality of a firm.”
Jirik pointed out that even when an attorney gets the best possible result for a client, the client may still be still unhappy and file a complaint, usually with the lawyer’s board or the attorney general’s office.
“They are a little bit more knowledgeable about the field and can understand an explanation — here’s what happened, here’s what was done and why. … I don’t think you get that from the Better Business Bureau.
