The ARDC filed a complaint against an Illinois attorney accusing him of posting fake online reviews of his own law firm, among other things. Lawyers are often surprised at the technological capabilities of the ARDC. In past cases the ARDC has used computer forensic experts and technology to analyze a lawyer’s hard drive to determine if a document was genuine or not genuine. An example would be if a lawyer responds to a complaint with an exculpatory letter he wrote to the client. If it suspects a forgery, the ARDC will retain an expert and do an analysis of the lawyer’s hard drive. In this particular case, the ARDC was probably investigating some other issue and learned by accident that the lawyer had posted fake online reviews. In other words, the ARDC is claiming that he went on Google or Yelp or Avvo and posted a review of himself by a purported client but there was no such client. The review is complete fiction. Adding favorable reviews would perhaps balance out other negative reviews.
If you feel the urge to engage in deceptive behavior, please seek professional help and do not follow through. You will be caught and the pain and embarrassment of being caught are far worse than the pain of a few negative but genuine reviews. We all receive negative reviews. Some former client or prospective client will inevitably be unhappy with the service we provided or the advice we gave. I have received negative reviews. Take such reviews as a learning experience, not a deadly insult.
Because the case is in the complaint stage I will not provide his name or the name of the case. You can find it on the ARDC website if you are interested.