Website Review: Kevin R. Churchill, Colorado Criminal Lawyer

URL 1: http://www.colorado-criminal-lawyer.com

URL 2: http://www.denvercriminalattorney.com/

Date Reviewed: January 1, 2010

First impressions

This website is visually appealing in the extreme. The color schemes are pleasing to the eye: Blue, white, and subtle shades of gray.

It has three columns: one wide center column for the body text and select images; a left column with links that change depending on the subject matter; a right column for highlights such as brief background information about attorney Kevin R. Churchill, “Don’t Speak to the Police,” and “Here to Help You.” 

The top navigation panel consists of six clearly visible buttons: Home, Felony Cases, Dealing With Police, Sentencing, DUI Cases, and Contact Us. On top of this sits, on the left, Mr. Churchill’s golden logo followed by the words “CRIMINAL DEFENSE” carved in block letters, with a mirror image for visual effect; on the right, links to “Colorado Criminal Lawyer,” “Criminal Defense” and “DUI attorney.”

Navigation

Navigating through this website is a breeze, albeit with a few minor exceptions. The links to “Home | Felony Cases | Dealing With Police | Sentencing | DUI Cases | Contact Us” at the bottom of all pages are in small type and too obscure to be useful to typical visitors. Legal Examiner also did observe that the font used for links on the left side-panel is rather small; so small in fact that we nearly missed them on pages with few links such as “Dealing With Police.” We recommend slightly increasing the font size in both of these areas.

Link Quality

While Legal Examiner found no broken or non-descriptive links on this website, we did observe a couple of inconsistencies.

The top navigation panel link “Colorado Criminal Lawyer” leads to an internal page with important details about the law firm, including a specific promise to all clients and the important distinction between a “criminal defense lawyer” like Mr. Churchill and a “multi-practice general lawyer.”

By contrast, clicking on any of the several “criminal defense attorney” links within the body text directs the visitor to an external site, URL 2. Although it belongs to The Law Office of Kevin R. Churchill, the layout is rather different, which for us to see causes an unnecessary distraction. Why, we briefly wondered, does Mr. Churchill have two websites? Are we dealing with one firm or two separate firms? To avoid any confusion and achieve a smoother experience, we recommend consolidating all contents into the main site.

Legal Content

This website is filled with highly relevant, well-written legal information and advice such as an explanation for various common crimes, the distinction between various classes of felonies and misdemeanors, sentencing procedures, and dealing with the police. In fact, the contents are so interesting, informative, and carefully selected that our reviewers spent about two hours reading almost the entire site. Interestingly, this information has been packed into relatively few pages, which makes the website even more valuable.

Descriptive Content

This website does contain a fair amount of relevant information about Mr. Churchill. His firm practices criminal law exclusively, he claims to have represented hundreds of clients, and he accepts virtually all types of criminal cases (except capital cases!?) What we lacked, however, was some supplementary information regarding his professional background, including how long he has been practicing law (he was admitted to the Denver Bar Association in the Fall of 2001, according to their website). The website has adequate contact information, including an email address and a convenient map, but we could not even find their office hours. Also, we found articles on the Internet to the effect that Mr. Churchill offers free consultations, but could not find this important information on his main website. We recommend filling in these gaps.

Conclusions

If Mr. Churchill’s informative, no-nonsense website is any indication of his professional abilities, he must be an effective advocate.

As noted above, this impressive website has a few minor flaws, but none that reduce its trustworthiness in our opinion. However, if Mr. Churchill offers free consultations, it would be nice to know, especially for someone who suddenly finds himself in need of contacting Colorado Criminal Lawyer for the first time.