LegalMatch Credibility and Legitimacy

For many of your potential clients, dealing with the legal system can be a nightmare. That’s why we pioneered legal tech more than 20 years ago, to provide an online platform where people who find themselves with a legal problem can be matched (at no cost to them) with qualified lawyers.
But today, with so many legal tech companies out there now, you might find yourself wondering…is LegalMatch legit?

Our problem-solving approach was unique back then, and we remain a one-of-a-kind solution today because we offer lawyers like you an efficient and effective way to have consistent access to legal leads who are actively searching for your professional services. This article addresses common misperceptions about legal marketing, how LegalMatch really works, and why more than 7 million people have trusted us to help them find the right lawyer for their legal needs.

History of Legal Marketing

Lawyer commercials and online ads for legal services are relatively recent. Until the late 1970s, legal ethics strictly prohibited lawyers from advertising of any kind. From the beginning, the legal profession asserted that a lawyer’s reputation, built on word-of-mouth and proven skill, would naturally attract clients. Advertising was considered unprofessional, akin to soliciting clients on the street corner.

For legal clients, this way of doing business could be highly problematic. To find a good lawyer, clients had to rely on personal connections or sheer luck. People who found themselves facing a legal problem often did not know where to turn for help.

At the same time, lawyers who didn’t already have the right connections would struggle to build themselves a sustainable legal practice. Without the ability to promote their services, many lawyers’ professional dreams were nearly impossible to achieve.

In 1977, the US Supreme Court determined that state bar rules forbidding lawyers from marketing themselves violated the First Amendment’s right to free speech (Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350). This decision fundamentally changed the legal landscape as lawyers were finally able to market and advertise their professional services.

Lawyer Marketing Rules

Even after the landmark ruling that affirmed lawyers’ right to advertise, bar associations continued to restrict how a lawyer can communicate about their services. At the national level, the American Bar Association’s Rule 7.2 states the following:

(a) A lawyer may communicate information regarding the lawyer’s services through any media.

(b) A lawyer shall not compensate, give or promise anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer’s services except that a lawyer may:

(1) pay the reasonable costs of advertisements or communications permitted by this Rule;

(2) pay the usual charges of a legal service plan or a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer referral service;

(3) pay for a law practice in accordance with Rule 1.17;

(4) refer clients to another lawyer or a nonlawyer professional pursuant to an agreement not otherwise prohibited under these Rules that provides for the other person to refer clients or customers to the lawyer, if:

(i) the reciprocal referral agreement is not exclusive; and

(ii) the client is informed of the existence and nature of the agreement; and

(5) give nominal gifts as an expression of appreciation that are neither intended nor reasonably expected to be a form of compensation for recommending a lawyer’s services.

(c) A lawyer shall not state or imply that a lawyer is certified as a specialist in a particular field of law, unless:

(1) the lawyer has been certified as a specialist by an organization that has been approved by an appropriate authority of the state or the District of Columbia or a U.S. Territory or that has been accredited by the American Bar Association; and

(2) the name of the certifying organization is clearly identified in the communication.

(d) Any communication made under this Rule must include the name and contact information of at least one lawyer or law firm responsible for its content.

Some state bar associations have additional rules for how lawyers can promote their services. For example, any advertiser that refers legal clients to a California attorney must be registered with that state bar as a lawyer-referral service. The registration process involves extensive documentation and hefty annual fees starting at $15,000.

Interestingly, major advertising platforms like Google, Bing, Yellow Pages, Avvo, and Solo – all of which connect potential clients with lawyers – are not registered lawyer-referral services in California according to the state bar website. These advertising platforms may argue that because legal advertising is just one aspect of their broader business model, they don’t fall under the definition of a “registered lawyer-referral service.”

The application process to become a California-state approved attorney referral service is rigorous and demanding. These stringent rules exist to protect California consumers by allowing only the highest quality legal professionals to participate in such referral services. These protections allow consumers to use referral services with the confidence that the attorneys are properly qualified to provide legal representation.

In 2019 the California Court of Appeal changed the definition of ‘lawyer referral’ to include any ‘act of directing a potential client to an attorney.’ As a result, all attorney lead services, and likely many other attorney advertising providers, are now required to register with the California State Bar as Certified Lawyer Referral Services. LegalMatch did so in 2020 and is extremely proud to still be the only major attorney advertising source in compliance with California’s new certification requirements.

Trends in Legal Marketing

Marketing is the key to a flourishing business of any kind, and that includes your legal practice. But marketing, especially digital and online marketing, requires a wide range of skills that are not taught in law school. To attract more clients and stand out in the competitive legal landscape, you might consider hiring a marketing agency to help with online visibility, attracting leads, and building brand reputation.

Most marketing agencies that specialize in law and the legal field usually require a level of investment that only a very large firm (such as a national law firm) can justify. If you run a law firm with ten attorneys or less, the cost of hiring a marketing agency (or even setting up an in-house team) is most likely prohibitive. Moreover, the focus of most agency-based marketing efforts is related to branding, messaging, and consumer awareness. While these are important, it takes time for such efforts to turn into clients who are ready to hire you.

It might be more important for your legal practice to get new clients today than to make sure your branding is perfect or invest in wait-and-see efforts that may not pay off. This is why, for many attorneys, LegalMatch is a valuable alternative.

LegalMatch is a good investment for what it brings in and what it costs us. I joined LegalMatch because I want to increase my bandwidth on lead sources. LegalMatch is another form of getting the word out. Bankruptcy and Credit Attorney, Peter D.

At LegalMatch, our sole focus is on providing you with new potential clients. These are not cold leads. LegalMatch gives members fast access to people who are actively looking to hire an attorney today. We do this by providing an online platform where people can share basic information about their legal problem – for free – and be connected with attorneys who are interested in taking their case.

Because we help people find a lawyer anywhere in the United States (as well as in Canada) for most legal problems, we’re able to leverage an economy of scale to continually reach new legal clients on behalf of our member attorneys. Each month nearly a million people use our platform as they search for a lawyer.

Whatever LegalMatch is doing to generate the traffic, it is working! It creates a steady stream of leads for us. Family Law Attorney, Todd I.

I’ve tried other lead-generating systems that I’ve had to let go of because it just didn’t produce enough traffic and enough leads. LegalMatch has always come through with solid, good leads. General Practice Attorney, Stephen J.

When a potential client with a need in your legal practice area and geographic location submits a case, we notify you immediately. You then have the opportunity to review the client’s detailed case information to determine whether they seem to be a good fit for you. If so, you can use our convenient suite of tools to communicate with that potential client directly and begin moving them through your client-screening process.

By delivering leads who actively need legal help in your area, LegalMatch membership can have a more direct impact on helping you gain new clients and increasing your revenue—which are the goals of marketing in the first place.

Why Join LegalMatch

All lawyers who have passed the bar are required to register with their state bar association and be in good standing in order to practice law in that state. All state bar associations will refer clients to registered lawyers, many of them doing so through their own certified lawyer referral services. You might think this is enough to cover your law firm marketing needs, but LegalMatch offers several advantages you won’t find anywhere else.

Client leads who visit a bar association site are able to find information about a specific lawyer already known to them, or they can search for a lawyer. To do so, they’re referred to a specific page or third-party referral service where they must select the county (and often pay a fee) to be shown the next lawyer on a rotation list of all bar-registered lawyers in that county for that legal category. In other words, bar associations refer clients to whomever is next on their list. All lawyers are required to register, which means they are all on the list. When a client goes to the bar, they get the next lawyer on the list.

The objective is to distribute lead requests evenly across all lawyers based on category and county. Each client search yields one lawyer referral and each lawyer receives only those (limited) leads that are sent directly to them, without any filtering to know in advance whether they will be a good fit.

This one-to-one, randomized approach may sound “fair,” but we believe informed consumers know best when it comes to choosing the right lawyer for their needs. LegalMatch gives all leads to all lawyers and encourages lawyers to reach out if they believe they can help. We also encourage clients to talk with multiple attorneys so they can find the best match for their needs.

We gather detailed information from each client lead and provide a set of communication tools to support you in further qualifying those leads and converting them into paying clients for your legal practice. Our platform facilitates communication between you and your potential clients, so you can spend more time on the legal work rather than on the marketing work of attracting new client leads. We do the heavy-lifting of bringing leads your way, and we do it at a scale that can save you money and time, improving your productivity and increasing your overall enjoyment in running your law firm.

We understand that small law firms face specific challenges when it comes to getting clients, and legal marketing isn’t something that they teach you in law school. With your membership in LegalMatch, you get not only the case leads you need to grow your practice, but dedicated support on how to turn those leads into paying clients.

Is LegalMatch Legit?

LegalMatch is deeply involved in building awareness and acceptance for Online Legal Matching in all fifty states. We are confident that our policies are within the guidelines and the ethical standards of all State Bar Associations across the United States. To date, the State Bars of California, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas as well as the Rhode Island Supreme Court Ethics Advisory Panel and the Supreme Court of Ohio have each announced favorable opinions on the use of LegalMatch within their jurisdictions. Even the FTC has released an opinion endorsing Online Legal Matching.

These precedent-setting decisions are now part of a growing trend among Bar Associations to look favorably upon web-based online attorney-client matching. Numerous other State Bars have given informal approval to LegalMatch’s model. To read more about the legal ethics of an attorney’s use of LegalMatch, see our Ethics FAQ about Online Legal Matching.

The Bottom Line

LegalMatch is here to help you leverage your time more effectively so you can take care of clients efficiently, provide a good customer experience, and secure the reviews you need to gain a stronger online presence. Our member attorneys regularly tell us that LegalMatch provides them with an efficient and effective way to have consistent access to potential new clients.

Here are a few more examples of what our happy member attorneys have to say about their experience:

LegalMatch has significantly helped my business grow. Not only does it work as a marketing system, but it also helps me vet different client situations in advance. Real Estate Law Attorney, Yvonne S.

The website’s really manageable. It’s very responsive. It has all sorts of tools for keeping notes on your current cases for sorting them. Estate Law Attorney, Allegra L.

LegalMatch has given us a nice return on our investment…we’re getting as much as six to one return on our investment, which I think is exceptionally good! Criminal Law Attorney, Steven F.

Other lead generation services don’t offer as much granular detail and effective lead conversion as LegalMatch does. Family Law Attorney, Steven O.

It’s been working out very well for me, and it’s taken a lot of stress out of working because I don’t have to worry about where I’m going to get my next client. I always have a client base there from LegalMatch. Criminal Law Attorney, Theryn W.

If you’re a new attorney starting your practice, any expense seems like a considerable expense, especially if you’re running your own firm, just trust the process because LegalMatch is going to pay dividends. Criminal Law Attorney, Stephen B.

To learn more about how our services can help you reach your law firm practice-building goals, reach out to request a guest pass. We’d love to show you examples of real cases that we can provide in your location and practice area today.