Methodology
Every firm in this index carries an Index Score from 0 to 100. The score is built from five equally weighted components worth 20 points each. It is shown publicly as a band, never as a number, and it is a measure of how well documented and established a practice is — not a prediction of the outcome of your case, and not a recommendation.
What we publish
The 0-100 total is computed internally and is not published. On listings, profiles, and comparisons we present each firm by its band — Exceptional, Strong, Established, or Developing profile — together with its rank among scored firms in its own metro, for example "#14 of 153 in Houston". The point total still determines the band and the ordering of every ranked list; we simply do not display it, because the band and the rank are the claims we are prepared to stand behind.
The five components
1. Experience — up to 20 points
Years in practice, attorney count, and depth in the firm's stated practice areas.
2. Credentials — up to 20 points
State bar standing, board certification, and professional association membership.
3. Client feedback — up to 20 points
Volume, recency, and consistency of published client reviews.
4. Responsiveness — up to 20 points
Consultation availability, stated response times, and language access.
5. Profile completeness — up to 20 points
How much verifiable detail the firm publishes about fees, staff, and process.
Score tiers
Bands are the public form of the score. The internal cuts are unchanged:
- Exceptional — 70-100. Tiers are shown with a distinct label and marker as well as colour, so the tier is readable without relying on colour alone.
- Strong — 60-69. Tiers are shown with a distinct label and marker as well as colour, so the tier is readable without relying on colour alone.
- Established — 50-59. Tiers are shown with a distinct label and marker as well as colour, so the tier is readable without relying on colour alone.
- Developing profile — Below 50. Tiers are shown with a distinct label and marker as well as colour, so the tier is readable without relying on colour alone.
Where the data comes from
- Public bar records. Licence status and admission years are taken from state bar member directories. A firm is only marked bar verified once at least one attorney's licence has been checked, and we record the date.
- Firm-published information. Practice areas, languages, fee structures, consultation policy, and office details come from the firm's own website or from a claimed listing.
- Published client reviews. Ratings and review counts are aggregated from public review platforms. We do not solicit reviews, and firms cannot delete individual reviews from a profile.
- Public court records. Federal filing activity is used as an internal signal for whether a firm actually litigates delay cases. Raw case counts are held internally and never displayed as a ranking figure.
The index currently covers 3244 firms, 0 attorneys, and 11 languages across 39 metro areas. 0 firms are bar verified. Listings are re-checked on a rolling quarterly cycle and each profile shows its own last-updated date.
Listings published without a score
Some listings are sourced from verified business records but do not yet have review or profile data. Those listings are published unscored and are labelled "Not yet scored": we don't score what we can't measure, so no number, no band, and no rank is shown for them.
A listing receives a score once real inputs exist: published client reviews, a claimed listing with verified firm detail, or confirmed state bar standing. Unscored listings stay in the directory and sit at the bottom of ranked lists.
Conflict-of-interest policy
Money cannot buy a score or a rank. Advertising and sponsorship have no effect on the Index Score or on the order of any ranked list. Claiming a listing is free and is not advertising: it changes a score only because it adds verifiable data the score already measures.
Paid placement is always labelled. Where a firm pays for visibility, the unit is marked as promoted and sits outside the ranked results. A firm with a promoted unit is never re-ordered inside a ranked list.
We take no referral fees. We are not a law firm and not a lawyer referral service. We are not paid per call, per form, or per signed client, so there is no incentive to route you to one firm over another.
Corrections are free. Any firm can request a data correction at no cost, whether or not it advertises, and corrections are applied on the same terms for everyone.
What claiming a listing changes
The claim form collects a firm description, practice areas, languages, free consultation, virtual consultations, payment plans, and federal litigation. Those fields feed three of the five components, not one:
- Experience. A firm description adds up to 4 points, and practice-area breadth adds up to 6.
- Responsiveness. A free consultation adds up to 6 points and virtual consultations add up to 5.
- Profile completeness. A description adds up to 3 points, practice areas 1, and languages 1.
Payment plans and federal litigation are not scored at all. They only drive a badge on the profile and a filter on city pages.
Claiming a listing cannot touch the other two components. Credentials depends on bar standing, board certification, and association membership, which we verify against public records. Client feedback depends on published reviews, which a firm cannot add, edit, or remove here.
Measured across all published firms, almost every firm that fills in each claimable field moves up at least one band, and its metro rank improves with it.
Claimed listings tend to score higher, because verified detail is one of the things the Index measures. Until more firms claim their listings, the Index reflects how completely a firm's information is published as much as any other factor.
Limitations
A high band means a practice is well established and well documented. It cannot tell you whether a particular lawyer is the right fit for your matter, and no score substitutes for a consultation. Read our guidance on choosing a lawyer.