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What we measured, and what it means.
Rankings are built from the Certification Score, and the analysis behind it is published here. Every figure in these pieces is computed from the same data the profiles use, so a correction propagates everywhere at once.
Statute of Limitations by State: Every Deadline in One Table
The deadline to sue for an injury, a death, medical malpractice and a damaged car, in all fifty states and DC, each read from the state's own code and linked to the section. What the statute of limitations is, when the clock starts, and the narrow ways it stops.
Indiana Statute of Limitations: The Rule, and the Notices That Come First
Indiana's injury deadline is short, and the notices inside it are shorter. A claim against a city, a county or the state, and a work injury, each need written notice within months, and a child's malpractice claim does not wait for 18. Every Indiana deadline, read from the Code.
Massachusetts Statute of Limitations: Deadlines by Claim, and the Notices That Come First
The Massachusetts injury deadline is the easy part. A pothole, a hit-and-run and a claim against a city or town each need written notice long before it, and a child's malpractice claim runs on its own rule. Every Massachusetts deadline, read from the General Laws.
Maryland Statute of Limitations: The Rule, and the Shorter Clocks Beside It
Maryland's injury deadline is generous, and that is the trap. An assault, a notice to Baltimore City or a county, and a work injury all run on far shorter clocks, and a child's malpractice claim starts long before adulthood. Every Maryland deadline, read from the Code.
Oregon Statute of Limitations: The Notice, and the Cap on a Child's Time
Oregon's injury deadline is the familiar one. What catches people is beside it: a short notice period against any public body, and a pause for minors that is capped, so a young child's claim can end long before adulthood. Every Oregon deadline, read from the ORS.
Florida Statute of Limitations: The Deadline That Was Cut in Half
Florida moved negligence claims onto a much shorter clock in 2023, and plenty of what is published about the state still gives the old figure. Every Florida deadline by type of claim, read from the statute, with the transition rule and the narrow ways the clock stops.
Texas Statute of Limitations: The Rule and the Exceptions That Bite
Everybody knows the Texas injury deadline. The ones that end cases early are the short periods beside it: the notice against a city, the year for defamation, and a malpractice rule that ignores the usual protection for children. Every one, with its statute.
New York Statute of Limitations: The Years, and the Days That Matter More
A New York injury claim has years. A claim against the City, the MTA or a public hospital has days before the first deadline, and that notice ends more cases than the statute everyone quotes. Every New York deadline by type of claim, read from the CPLR.
The Practice Area List Is the Same List at Almost Every Injury Firm
A law firm website opens with the kinds of case it takes, and that list is the easiest thing on the site to write. We read the practice pages of every injury firm in this directory and counted which kinds of case each one actually publishes a page about. The lists run long, they repeat, and what they predict is the size of the firm.
Law Firms Publish the Settlement Figure and Not the Notice Beside It
A firm that advertises what it won for somebody else is expected to say the figure predicts nothing about anyone else. We read the case results page of every firm in this directory and counted the ones that say it. Most of the sentences exist, one click away from the number they are about.
Most Criminal Defense Firms Publish No Case Results at All
Every guide to hiring a criminal lawyer tells you to check the track record. We counted whether there is one to check, against the injury firms on the same streets. Most of these firms publish no outcome at all, our own score marks them down for it, and their clients rate them the same.
Injury Firms Almost Always Offer a Free Consultation, Real Estate Almost Never
Nearly every page answering this question was written by a firm that offers one. We read the websites of every firm in this directory instead. Across the whole directory the answer is usually yes, and that is an artefact of which practice most of these firms are in: split by the kind of work, it stops being one habit and becomes two.
Search Visibility Brings a Law Firm More Reviews, Not Better Ones
The most visible firm in a search result is the one that invested most in being found there. We measured the organic search traffic of every firm in this directory against what it publishes and what its clients rated it. Almost everything a firm says about itself rises with visibility. The rating its clients gave it does not move.
Law Firm Websites Publish a Blog First and a Price Last
Every page telling a law firm what belongs on its website is written by somebody who sells websites. We counted what is on the firm websites in this directory instead. A blog is the page a firm reaches for first and a page about fees is the one it reaches for last, and the gap between the two is not close.
One State in Thirteen Publishes a Lawyer Register Anyone Can Read
Every state bar lets you check one lawyer by typing a name into a form, and that works everywhere. Almost none publishes the same information as data, so nobody outside a state can ask how many firms in a city name an attorney who is not registered. The gap is not between secret and public. It is between public and legible.
Injury Firms Do Not Print What They Charge, in Any State
When this directory covered one state, nobody published the contingency percentage and the obvious reading was that the state already fixed it. There are enough states now to test that, and the test comes out the other way: the rules differ, and what firms disclose does not.
The Reviews Google Shows Are a Fraction of the Reviews It Counted
Google counts every review on a law firm’s profile and hands back five per listing. We compared the two across the whole directory. Pooled, the two agree almost exactly, so nobody is being flattered on average. Firm by firm is another matter, and that is the situation every client is actually in.
Law Firms Publish in Spanish for Injury Work, Not for Divorce
We read every firm’s website looking for a page published in Spanish. Two things decide whether one is there, the market and the kind of case, and the practice where a client and a lawyer have to talk most is the one that advertises a second language least.
How Much Does a Divorce Cost in New York?
Half of this question has an exact answer and half of it has none. New York sets its court fees by statute, so that part can be quoted to the dollar. The rest is a lawyer’s hours, so we turned the reported totals back into hours, which is the unit a bill is in.
Average Lawyer Hourly Rate, and the Hours Nobody Pays For
Every page on this search publishes the same table of rates by state and stops there. The number missing beside it is how much of a working day actually gets paid for, which is published too, and changes what the rate means.
20 Best Law Firm Websites, Measured
Every other list of the best law firm websites is a design agency showing its portfolio. We do not design websites, so we ran the speed test Google publishes on every firm in this directory instead, and kept the screenshot it took while measuring each one.
Law Firm Statistics in New York: Fewer Offices, More Lawyers
Nobody counts law firms, so we counted what is counted: the offices that report payroll. Over ten years New York has fewer of them, employing more people, paid half again as much. The profession is arranging itself into fewer and larger practices.
How Many Lawyers Are in New York? We Counted the State Register
New York publishes every attorney registration it holds as open data. Ask it how many lawyers the state has and it answers four different ways, because that question has four meanings, and the American Bar Association reports a fifth number that matches none of them.
New York Injury Firms Do Not Print the Fee They Charge
Nearly every New York firm in the directory offers a free consultation, so it differentiates nothing. What none of them publishes is the percentage, or how case expenses are handled, which is where a five-figure difference hides.
Office Count Separates New York Injury Firms, Star Rating Does Not
We summed every Google review across every business listing these New York firms operate. The ratings span well under a star; the review counts differ by orders of magnitude, mostly because of office count. Why a star rating ranks almost nothing.
Almost No New York Injury Firm Passes Google Core Web Vitals
We measured every New York firm in the directory against Google's thresholds. Almost none passes. What that means for pillar D of the score, and why it is the cheapest thing on a firm's list to fix.
Best Personal Injury Law Firms in NYC
The highest-scoring personal injury firms in New York City, with the evidence behind each score.