The first call used to be the first question.
Now AI answers it before anyone calls you.
Someone hurt in a crash, served with divorce papers, or charged with a DUI may ask ChatGPT which lawyer to call and what the case is worth, before they call anyone. The answer names two or three firms and sometimes describes their fees, results, or "specialties" as fact. If your firm is missing, or described in words you would never be allowed to use, that client signs somewhere else.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: up to 6 priority questions on paid scans. Results may be reused for up to 7 days; availability varies by question.
Who's the best car accident lawyer in Columbus for a rear-end crash?
Halvorsen Pike Injury Law
described as "specializing in" car and truck crashes, no certification named
Brightwater Trial Group
statewide firm, several Ohio offices, heavy advertising
Merriden & Vose
smaller firm, noted for taking cases to trial
Your result is not known yet
Run your own scan to see whether your law firm is named in the completed answers.
See what AI tells your future clients
Sound familiar?
What managing partners and marketing directors at consumer law firms are seeing
Callers already compared you to two other firms
Intake hears "I talked to a couple of firms" or "I read that you handle these." You were on the list this time. You don't know how often you weren't.
Cost per signed case keeps climbing
Paid search, Local Services Ads, and lead vendors cost more each year, and some of those leads are sold to other firms too. The spend stops working the week you stop paying.
Callers ask about a fee you don't charge
People call expecting a contingency percentage, a free consultation, or a flat fee they read somewhere. Your intake team corrects it on the phone, if the person calls at all.
Wrong-fit calls go up while right-fit cases go elsewhere
You get calls for practice areas you don't handle, while the cases you want go to firms that described themselves more clearly.
The common thread: the shortlist now forms inside an AI answer, before anyone visits your site, calls, or fills in a form. Your name is either in that answer or it is not.
What you're already paying for, and where it stops
None of this is wasted. Each one does its job. None of them was built to put your name in an AI answer.
Paid search and Local Services Ads
They reach people clicking through results, and they're worth running. They don't put your firm inside a written AI answer, which is where a scared person at midnight may form a shortlist.
Legal directories and peer-rating profiles
Keep them current. They are a few inputs among many, and when a directory profile disagrees with your own site about practice areas or fees, AI can repeat whichever is oldest.
Billboards, TV, and radio
Name recognition helps people pick you once they've heard of you. It doesn't tell an AI assistant what cases you handle, where you're licensed, or how your fees work.
Referrals from other attorneys and past clients
Still the best cases. A referred client usually looks you up before they call, and people with no one to ask may start with an AI assistant instead of a friend.
An SEO agency writing practice area pages
Good pages help. But a ranking report won't tell you whether ChatGPT or Gemini names your firm for "best car accident lawyer in my city," or what it says about your results when it does.
What a missed decision is worth
A client who never hears your name does not show up in any report. Put your own numbers in to size what that costs over the years they would have stayed.
Example numbers. Replace them with yours.
Lifetime revenue from one year of missed clients
$80,000
per client per year × years they stay × missed per year
Divide last year's fees by the number of matters you opened, and use only the practice areas you're checking. Raise matters per client for estate or business work where clients come back.
What people ask AI before they call a lawyer
Examples written for Columbus. We track the questions your future clients ask in each market you serve. Daily priority checks on ChatGPT and Gemini, plus a weekly sweep across all four assistant families.
See the full methodology →- →Who is the best car accident lawyer in Columbus?
- →Which personal injury firms in Columbus actually take cases to trial?
- →How much does a personal injury lawyer in Columbus charge, and what percentage do they take?
- →Who is the best divorce lawyer in Columbus for a contested custody case?
- →Who should I call in Columbus for a first-offense DUI?
- →Which estate planning attorneys in Columbus do a will and trust for a flat fee?
- →Is a big law firm or a small firm better for an injury case in Columbus?
- →What should I ask a lawyer at a free consultation before I sign anything?
What to check whether AI says about your firm
Things to check in the answers about you. The evidence explorer keeps the full text of every answer, so your team can read exactly what was said.
"Specialist" and certification claims
Check whether AI says your lawyers "specialize in" or are "board certified" in an area. Under ABA Model Rule 7.2(c) and the state rules based on it, a lawyer can't claim to be a certified specialist without an approved certification named in the communication. You can't edit an AI answer, but you can make your own site state your certifications exactly.
Practice areas
Check whether AI lists your firm for work you don't take, or leaves out the practice area you most want. Either one sends the wrong calls to intake and the right ones elsewhere.
Fees and consultations
Check what AI says about your contingency percentage, case costs, flat fees, and whether consultations are free. A wrong number here decides whether someone calls.
Results and verdicts
Check whether AI repeats a settlement or verdict amount for your firm without context, or credits your firm with another firm's result. Past results are among the claims bar rules watch most closely.
People, offices, and languages
Check whether AI names attorneys who have left or retired, an office you closed, or the wrong languages spoken. People choose a firm by a lawyer's name and by whether someone there speaks their language.
Your first 30 days
Steps your own team can take, in this order. Monitoring shows which of them moved the answer.
Ask the questions your clients ask
Run the eight questions above in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity for each city where you have an office. Note who is named, whether you are, and every statement about your practice areas, fees, results, and certifications.
Publish one plain page per practice area
In sentences: the cases you take and the ones you don't, which attorneys handle them, the courts and counties you appear in, and the states where your lawyers are licensed. Text on the page, not a video or a PDF.
Explain your fees in plain words
How your contingency fee works, who pays case costs, what a flat fee covers, and whether the first consultation is free. Have the partner responsible for advertising compliance review it before it goes up.
State certifications exactly and match every profile
Name each certification and the certifying organization, or don't use the word. Then match your Google Business Profile, directory profiles, and bar profiles to your website: practice areas, attorneys, offices, and languages.
Answer the questions people are afraid to ask
Short, factual guides: what happens after a crash, what a first DUI means in your state, what a contested custody case involves. Review them under your state's advertising rules, then re-run the questions after a few weeks and note what changed.
The plan that fits most law firms
Growth
$399/mo
Up to 5 locations or brands, 120 tracked questions each.
Many consumer firms have offices in several cities, and clients in each city get a different answer. Growth tracks up to 5 locations or brands with up to 120 questions, so you can see where you're named and which firm is named instead. A single-office firm can start on Local.
A mention is not a signed client. We measure whether and how you are named in sampled AI answers, show who is named instead, and rank the fixes. We do not promise placements.
Questions managing partners and marketing directors at consumer law firms ask us
Most of our best cases come from referrals.+
Those aren't going anywhere. Referred clients still look you up before they call, and people with no lawyer to ask may start with an AI assistant. A free scan shows what both groups would read about your firm.
We already spend heavily on paid search and Local Services Ads.+
Keep what works. Paid placements and AI answers are different surfaces, and a firm can dominate one and be missing from the other. Monitoring shows you the second one, which your ad reports can't.
Can you make ChatGPT recommend our firm?+
No one can honestly promise that. We measure whether and how your firm is named in sampled answers, show who is named instead, and give you a ranked list of fixes. A mention is not a signed client, and we don't treat it as one.
Our bar has strict advertising rules. Is this allowed?+
Monitoring is reading public answers, not advertising. What you publish is yours to approve, and every fix we suggest is about stating facts accurately on your own site. Your advertising rules still apply to anything you put up.
We have strong directory and peer-rating profiles.+
Good, they're part of what AI reads. But they're not the whole picture, and they can disagree with your site. The evidence shows you the full answer text, so you can see which facts the assistants actually repeat.
Do you see any client or case information?+
No. We never ask for client data and have no connection to your systems. Monitoring uses general questions, like the ones on this page, and records public AI answers.
See what people are told about your firm
Run a free scan and read what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity say when someone asks which lawyer to call near you, including what they say about your fees and results.
Check what AI says about us →