The lawyers up top paid to be there; the order is advertising, not a ranking.
What it's really for A consumer lawyer directory; the attorneys shown paid for placement, so it's advertising, not a ranking.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its lawyer directory listings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Listed attorneys pay FindLaw, and paying buys higher placement: its Spotlight Listing openly "secures a spot at the top" so a firm is "one of the first listings people see," while free profiles get only a "Standard Listing" versus the "Enhanced Visibility" and "Prioritized + Promoted" reviews of paid tiers.
Source →- Operating since
- 1995 (31 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It sells attorneys paid directory listings, premium/Spotlight placement, and bundled website/SEO/PPC marketing packages, so revenue comes from the lawyers it lists rather than the consumers who search.
- What they do
- FindLaw runs a consumer-facing lawyer directory (plus legal articles and DIY legal tools) where people search for attorneys by location and practice area.
- What to watch for
- The lawyers shown at the top are largely the ones paying for placement, not the most qualified or best-reviewed, so the ordering you see is advertising, not a neutral ranking.
- Composite score
- 0.90 / 5.00 → grade F
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- FindLaw was founded in 1995 by Stacy Stern, Martin Roscheisen, and Tim Stanley; Thomson West (now Thomson Reuters) acquired it in 2001, and Thomson Reuters sold it to Internet Brands (MH Sub I, LLC) in late 2024. Source: Wikipedia – FindLaw →
- FindLaw's own Spotlight Listing page states the listing lets a firm 'secure a spot at the top' and be 'one of the first listings people see when searching for an attorney,' i.e. placement is sold. Source: FindLaw.com Spotlight Listing (advertising page) →
- Reviews are user-submitted 1–5 star ratings; the attorney themselves verifies whether a reviewer is a real client, attorneys can pick a 'featured review' to show first, and they cannot block a review only if it is spam/abusive — weak controls against solicited or self-managed reviews. Source: FindLaw.com Ratings & Reviews FAQs →