Do AI assistants recommend law firms? How to check
Updated October 15, 2026
Yes. Ask ChatGPT for a car accident lawyer or a divorce attorney in your city and it names a few firms, and each practice area gets its own list. To check your firm, ask the questions a client would ask, with your city, in all four assistants, several times. Or run our free check, which asks 48 of them.
What customers ask AI about law firms
Clients ask about their problem and about money. What kind of case is it, is the first meeting free, do they pay anything upfront?
Personal injury
- “I was in a car crash in Dallas, who should I call?”
- “I fell at a store in Garland and got hurt, who should I contact?”
- “I got hurt on the job in Fort Worth, who should I hire?”
Family law
- “I'm going through a divorce and need a lawyer in Plano, who do you recommend?”
- “I need help with a custody battle in Frisco, which lawyer should I contact?”
- “I want to try mediation for my divorce in Austin, which attorney should I use?”
Fees and first meetings
- “I can't afford upfront costs in Houston, who takes cases on contingency?”
- “Which family lawyers in McKinney, TX offer free consultations?”
What decides which law firms get named
A page per practice area and case type
"Personal injury" is too broad for the question someone asks after a crash. Car accidents, truck accidents, slip and fall, workplace injuries, wrongful death. Divorce, custody, mediation, prenups.
Each needs a page that explains the case type in plain words and says where you practice.
Say how fees and consultations work
Contingency fees and free consultations come up often in the questions we ask. If your site only says "call to discuss", an assistant can't tell whether you work on contingency. State it on each practice page, in the wording your bar allows.
Legal directories that match each other
Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell, Super Lawyers, Justia and FindLaw are where assistants tend to look for a second opinion on a lawyer. Claim the profiles, list the practice areas you have pages for, and keep your firm name and address identical to your bar record and website.
Reviews, within the rules
Client reviews on Google and Avvo that mention the case type say what you do. Bar rules in some states cover how you ask for reviews and how you reply, so check your bar's guidance before you set up a review request process.
Crawlers and being cited
Check robots.txt for GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot; a firm website with a blocked crawler can't be quoted by that assistant.
Then look at where others mention you: local news quoting you on a case or a change in the law, a talk for the county bar, answers you've written on Avvo or Justia's Q&A. An assistant that searches will find those too.
The listings that matter for law firms
Avvo
Lawyer profiles with ratings, client reviews and disciplinary records. A claimed, complete profile gives an answer something to check.
Martindale-Hubbell
Peer review ratings and a directory of attorneys by practice area.
Super Lawyers
Peer-nominated recognition, listed by state and practice area. If you're listed, link to it from your site.
Justia and FindLaw
Free lawyer directories with profiles by practice area and city.
Your state bar
The official license and discipline record. The State Bar of Texas and The Florida Bar both have public lawyer searches.
Google Business Profile
Address, hours and client reviews, and the record that ties your firm to a city.
Bar advertising rules shape what you can say
Law firms can't write pages the way a plumber can. State bar rules govern claims about results, testimonials and words like "expert" or "specialist", and they differ from state to state.
That's less of a problem than it sounds. A page that explains a case type and how your fees work, without promising outcomes, is the kind of page that tends to sit within the rules and is easy for an assistant to quote. Run new pages past whoever handles compliance at your firm. We don't give legal advice on what your bar allows.
Personal injury and family law are different contests
In personal injury, big advertising firms with pages in every city crowd the plain "best car accident lawyer" answer. Smaller firms tend to get named on narrower case types and on the fee questions.
Family law questions are more personal (mediation, high-conflict divorce, prenups), and a firm that writes about those directly has room to be named.
Outside the US
In the UK and Ireland the word is solicitor, with the practice area: conveyancing solicitor, family solicitor. Australians and New Zealanders ask for a lawyer or a solicitor, and buyers ask for a conveyancer. Canadians ask for a lawyer. Bar and law society rules on advertising differ, so check yours. The free check works in any city. See how it works by country.
How the free check works
You enter your website. We work out your business, trade and city from it, then put around 48 questions like “Which personal injury lawyers in Arlington, TX work on contingency?” to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. Every answer is saved word for word.
Your report shows how many of those questions named you, which law firms were named instead, what each assistant said, and your first fix in full. The free plan re-checks every month. Starter at $29 (USD) a month checks weekly and unlocks the full fix plan. Pro at $49 a month also writes pages for the questions you're losing.
Want to start with one quick check? The ChatGPT check asks ChatGPT one question about law firms in your city and shows whether you're named. The AI crawler checker tells you in seconds whether your robots.txt blocks the AI crawlers, and the llms.txt generator writes the file from your own pages.
Check your business for free
Enter your website. We ask the four assistants the questions your customers ask and email you who they recommend.
Common questions from law firms
Does Avvo affect which lawyers ChatGPT recommends?
It can. Avvo profiles are public, organized by practice area and city, and include ratings and reviews. Assistants with web search can read them. A claimed profile with your practice areas filled in gives an answer more to work with than an unclaimed one.
Can a law firm call itself the best in its city to get recommended?
Be careful. Bar rules in many states limit comparative claims and words like "best" or "specialist". You don't need them anyway. Assistants tend to name firms they can see confirmed elsewhere, and a superlative on your own site confirms nothing.
Should personal injury and family law have separate sites?
Not necessarily. Separate pages per case type do the work. What hurts is one page that gives every practice area a sentence each, since it leaves an assistant nothing specific to quote for a custody or slip and fall question.
Do I need to mention contingency fees and free consultations?
If you offer them, yes, plainly and on the practice pages. Clients ask for them by name. Some states require extra wording when a firm advertises contingency fees, so follow your bar's rules on how you describe them.
Is the check free for law firms?
Yes. The free plan asks all four assistants 48 client questions for your city, shows who gets named instead of you and each answer word for word, and re-checks monthly. Starter at $29 a month adds weekly checks and the full fix plan.