Unconventional regulation

The imperfections in the market for legal services are significant.  Most notably, clients often lack information about which lawyers are in fact better than others, and can rely on status heuristics to make consumption choices - e.g.., employing the most expensive lawyer they can afford on the grounds that a higher price must indicate a better lawyer.  While some information problems are difficult to overcome in the legal services market - a client may never know whether she achieved a good result in a case because she had a good lawyer, or whethe she won because any doofus could have won a case that straightforward - here's a website that tries to provide some useful information to consumers of legal services: Solicitors From Hell.  Thanks to Kim Economides for the reference.

I am not sure if websites such as this would truly solve the information problem.  But like Rate my Professor, it may provide some feedback that is useful to the consumers who access it. (On student evaluations and market efficiency see this post at one of my all time favourite blogs (full disclosure, this specific post was written by my sister): Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.)