How matching works
What decides the order you see lawyers in, what the “of 5” count means, and what money can and can’t change.
The three steps
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1
You describe the problem.
In your own words. We tell you what type of lawyer it sounds like, and you confirm or correct it before anything else happens.
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2
You see every listed lawyer. Free.
No account, no form. Lawyers with an office in the place you searched come first, then lawyers who serve it from elsewhere.
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3
Three optional questions reorder the list.
Cost, language and timing. Skip any of them. They change the order, never who is shown.
Browsing: nearest first
Every lawyer we list for your legal problem is shown, split into two groups:
- Located in — the lawyer has an office inside the place you searched.
- Serves — the lawyer takes cases there but their office is somewhere else.
The located-in group always comes first. Within each group, lawyers are ordered by distance from their office to the place you searched, nearest first. Distance never moves a lawyer from one group to the other.
Filters you switch on yourself, like “Free consultation” or “Within 10 miles”, do narrow the list. The optional questions below never do.
The three optional questions
Once you can already see the list, you can answer up to three questions. Each one adds a factor to check; none of them removes anyone.
Answers that don’t state a preference — “Not sure yet”, “No preference”, “Another language”, “Just researching” — add nothing to check, so they aren’t counted.
What “4 of 5” means
With your answers in, each lawyer’s card shows how many of your factors their profile meets. Two factors are always checked: the legal issue (does the lawyer list it?) and the location (is their office in the place you searched?). Each question you answer with a real preference adds one more, up to five.
- A factor counts as met only when the lawyer’s record says so. A lawyer who serves your area from an office elsewhere does not meet the location factor.
- If a lawyer hasn’t told us something, that factor counts as not met, and the card says it isn’t listed. We don’t guess, and we don’t give the benefit of the doubt.
- Because of that, every card in a list is counted out of the same number, so “3 of 5” and “4 of 5” can be compared directly.
All factors met reads Best match; all but one reads Strong match; anything less reads Some factors match. With your answers in, the list is ordered by the number of factors met, and ties are broken by distance, nearest first.
The count describes fit with what you told us. It is not a rating of the lawyer’s skill or results.
What the licence line means
Every card states a lawyer’s licence only as strongly as the record supports. There are three levels:
Licensed in [state] · checked [month year]
We checked an active admission against a state bar source. Where we have the date, the chip shows the month we last checked.Licence self-reported: [state]
The lawyer told us where they are admitted and we haven’t confirmed it yet. It has no check mark and is never shown as confirmed.Sponsored listings
Some lawyers pay for a sponsored placement. Sponsored listings are labelled, sit after every other result on the page, and are never scored: they carry no match count, no “Best match” label and no position in the ranking.
What money can’t buy
Lawyers can pay for an Enhanced Profile: a fuller public profile they can keep up to date themselves. It doesn’t change how the list is ordered. Every lawyer, paying or not, is placed by the same rules above, and a factor is met only when the lawyer’s record supports it.
Profile purchases never buy recognition or improve Match ranking.
Selected is a separate, earned annual recognition — the only thing on this site shown in gold. Selection is not available for purchase. How Selected works.
What we share
Browsing, answering the questions, saving and comparing send nothing to any lawyer. A lawyer hears from you only if you choose to contact them.