Legal Bistro is an online community where consumers with legal needs are able to quickly and easily find qualified lawyers who are seeking new clients. Our service is completely free for consumers. Lawyers bid for the placement of their profile (“Bid-for-Placement”) and are only charged the amount of their bid after the consumer requests a lawyer to contact them.<br /><br />The name Legal Bistro was chosen to bring together two very powerful meanings of the word Bistro. The Russian word bystro (быстро), which means "quickly" and the French word bistro (sometimes spelled bistroit) which means a small restaurant serving moderately priced meals, wines and coffees. Legal Bistro seeks to use the power of the Internet to quickly and easily present to consumers qualified lawyers all of whom have expressed an interest in their case. We believe that When Lawyers Compete for Your Business, You Win!<br /><br />Legal Bistro has been designed to make consumers feel at ease throughout the entire process by protecting their anonymity. In much the same way that you would feel at ease drinking coffee and talking to your friends in a French Bistro, our objective is to eliminate as much of the stress and confusion as possible when you have a need for legal services. You will be able to review lawyers who have expressed an interest online in handling your case from the comfort of your home.<br /><br />Our site does not look anything like a typical law firm website. We have chosen bright colors, icons, key words or “Tags”, animation and video to help guide you through the process of selecting the right lawyer for your case. Our approach is very similar to the methods used by Rosetta Stone to teach their clients a foreign language. After all, handling a complex legal problem can often feel as confusing to many consumers as learning to speak a foreign language.<br /><br />While we may have designed our website for consumers, our paying customers are lawyers who are seeking new clients. Our goal for lawyers is to use the power of the Internet to find and convince consumers who may not have decided to hire a lawyer on their own to seek legal representation for their legal matter. Our value proposition for lawyers and law firms is to use the Legal Bistro online community to drive down the cost of acquiring a new client while at the same time providing all of the information that a lawyer needs to assess the case.<br /><br />All lawyers who register on Legal Bistro will have Law Dollars credited to their Legal Bistro account simply for completing the registration process. Lawyers will be able to use these Law Dollars to bid for the placement of their profile and acquire new clients on the site. In other words, all registered lawyers on the site will have the opportunity to use the site until their Law Dollars have been exhausted. Lawyers who wish to continue using the site will be required to purchase additional Law Dollars.<br /><br />We have provided several ways for lawyers to establish their online credibility on Legal Bistro. Recommendations can be easily obtained from other lawyers, business associates, clients, family and friends. According to a 3rd Quarter 2011 Global Trust in Advertising Survey conducted by Nielsen:<br /><br /> 92% trust recommendations from people they know<br /><br /> 70% trust consumer opinions that are posted online<br /><br />Lawyers who enhance their profiles with articles and publications have nearly a three times greater chance of having their profile viewed by a consumer on the site. You will be able to upload a previously written article of publications or to write a posting for the Legal Bistro Blog. Professionally written articles on legal subjects are an excellent way of demonstrating your legal knowledge and skills to interested consumers on the site.