[Survey] Do people research their legal issue before hiring a lawyer?

At Juris Digital we talk a lot about the power of evergreen content.

Time and again we’ve seen that when law firms can successfully identify the right evergreen topics (aka “keywords”), and then publish exceptional information on those topics, they can bring in quality new cases, even in highly competitive markets.

Because we’re such loud advocates for evergreen content marketing, we thought it would be a good idea to get some real-world data to support our enthusiasm.

So we ran a Google Survey to answer the question:

 
48.6% responded that they had researched their legal issue online prior to hiring their lawyer.

This means…

This behavior isn’t going away. It’s compounding. Ten years ago, someone might have asked a neighbor for a referral. That was usually the end of it. Today that same person still asks the neighbor. But then they pull out their phone. They Google the lawyer before they call. AI Overviews and ChatGPT are part of that research now too. That makes evergreen content more valuable than ever. Answer the questions people are asking, and you show up wherever they’re asking them.

Survey methodology and key data points

• Our survey asked every respondent two questions. The first question – the qualifier – asked: Have you hired a lawyer in the last 10 years?

• Everyone who answered “Yes” was then asked: Did you research your legal issue online prior to hiring your lawyer?

• Males surveyed responded “Yes” 47.5% of the time:

• Females surveyed responded “Yes” 49.6% of the time:

• People age 35-44 responded “Yes” a whopping 75.1% of the time:

• People age 45-54 responded “Yes” 40.6% of the time:

• People age 55-64 responded “Yes” 45.2% of the time:

• People age 65 and older responded “Yes” 38.5% of the time:

A couple of things jump out here. The 35-44 spike at 75.1% matches what we see across our clients’ analytics. That cohort grew up researching everything online. Doctors, contractors, lawyers, it’s all the same to them. Google first, phone second. And the survey only captured the research step. The real journey usually goes further. People read reviews. They visit the firm’s website. Sometimes they compare two or three firms before anyone picks up the phone.

To view the raw data from the Google Survey click here.

Matt Green Hi, I'm Matt. I am the Chief Strategy Officer here at Juris Digital. I love SEO, content marketing, and brand development, and I am so grateful that my job is to help exceptional lawyers deploy these marketing tools to help more people. If you have specific topics you'd like to discuss with me, please feel free to email me.