From renewable energy credits to frozen turkeys just about anything can be run through the reverse auction. And now a young lawyer named Robert Grant Niznik has developed a website that allows individuals to post their cases online and lawyers then bid on the cases via a reverse auction.

Some in the legal industry oppose the idea, calling the site the “eBay of lawyering,” and argues the reverse auction style service will lower the integrity of the legal profession.” But Niznik argues that “the site enables attorneys to expand their client base and gain credibility” and that “lawyers have nothing to lose and “everything to gain” from joining the site.” He adds that “financially challenged clients who ‘get turned away from legal aid’ can use the site to obtain affordable legal advice”, as supported by an ABAJournal.com post last year describing how many in the middle-class are stuck in legal limbo because they make too much money to qualify for legal aid, but not enough to afford an attorney.

What do you think? Do you think it’s an appropriate and respectable to market legal services? What are the advantages? Disadvantages?