How we find and count prices

Last updated September 29, 2026

This page explains where every figure on the cost guides, each state's Legal Price Report and each firm's profile comes from, so you can check it.

How prices are found

We use software that visits each law firm's own public website and reads its pages. When a page states a price, we store the amount, the fee type, the firm's own label for it, the exact page it was on, the verbatim text around it, and the date we captured it. We also keep a full copy of the page and a dated screenshot. Prices the software isn't sure about are held back until a person has checked them. We don't buy prices, and no firm can pay to have a price shown, changed or moved up the list.

What counts as a published price

• A flat fee, an hourly rate, or a contingency percentage that the firm states on its own website.
• A price a firm hedges with "typically" or "generally" keeps that word next to it.
• "Starting at" floors, ranges without a stated fee, and averages aren't published as prices.

What's left out of the statistics

• Add-ons and per-additional charges, such as each extra trademark class or each extra LLC owner.
• Promotional prices for one group, such as a discount for first responders.
• Court and government filing fees.
• Prices whose label doesn't say which service they cover.
• Any price that's under review after a dispute, and, for a claimed firm, a price it hasn't reconfirmed in about six months.

Those prices stay on the firm's profile (unless disputed or stale), marked as not compared.

How services are grouped

Each price is matched to one standard service name, by fee type, using the firm's own label and wording. We only compare like with like. A flat fee is never compared with an hourly rate or a percentage. A price for one person is kept separate from a price for a couple, and a bigger package is kept separate from a basic one.

How the numbers are calculated

• n is the number of firms, not the number of prices. A firm that lists four variants counts once, at its lowest price for that service.
• The median is the middle firm price, so one unusually high or low firm can't pull it. The range is the lowest and highest firm price.
• A cost guide appears when at least 5 firms publish a price for the same flat-fee service. With 5 to 7 firms it carries the label "Early data: based on {n} firms"; with 8 or more it has no label; with fewer than 5 there's no guide. No statistic anywhere on the site is shown for fewer than 5 firms.
• Every figure is recalculated from the live data whenever a price is added, corrected, disputed or withdrawn. The "data as of" date is the most recent price capture behind the figure.

Statistics on practice, state and profile pages

• A statistic is shown only when at least 5 firms stand behind it. Below that, the number is left out rather than shown weak.
• Each one prints how many firms it's based on and an "as of" date. The share of firms that publish a price counts every firm we list in that practice area.
• The wording only states what firms publish. It never says a firm is cheaper, better or a good deal.

How a firm corrects a price

Any firm can claim its listing for free and correct or add prices. Anyone can use "Report inaccurate price or request removal" on a listing; a price under dispute is hidden from the pages and from every statistic until it's reviewed. A firm can also ask for a price or its whole listing to be removed.

What these numbers can't tell you

They're advertised prices, not what any client paid. A firm's scope, its court costs and your facts can change the bill, and firms that publish prices aren't a random sample of all firms.

Data

We don't offer bulk downloads. Journalists and researchers can request data for a story or study at [email protected], and we decide each request case by case.