Should a Law Firm Publish Which Cases It Will Not Take

Publishing what a firm will not take is the clearest available signal of what it does take, and almost no firm does it. The reasoning against is that stating limits loses enquiries. The reasoning for is that most of the enquiries lost were going to be declined anyway, after a consultation somebody had to give and somebody else had to sit through.

What acceptance criteria actually are

Every firm has criteria whether or not they are written down: a minimum case value, an injury threshold, matter types outside the firm’s competence, stages of a matter too late to take on, and clients whose expectations the firm cannot meet. They operate at intake and they are usually held in one person’s judgement.

Writing them down does two things. It makes the intake decision consistent across whoever answers the phone, and it lets a reader self-select before either party spends time. The second is the marketing benefit and the first is the operational one, and the operational one is usually worth more.

The cost of not saying

An enquiry that reaches a consultation and is then declined has consumed a slot, produced a disappointed caller who may say so publicly, and returned nothing. A firm with a narrow focus and a broad site collects those continuously.

The reader also loses. A person with a matter nobody will take is better served by being told early and pointed elsewhere, and the firm that does that is remembered more warmly than the one that took a meeting and said no.

How to say it without sounding closed

State criteria as a description of fit rather than as a refusal, and put them beside the matter they apply to rather than on a page of their own. What the firm handles and what it does not are the same question answered from two directions, and separating them into different pages makes the second read as a warning notice.

Avoid absolute thresholds where judgement genuinely applies. A stated minimum invites people just below it to inflate the facts, and it commits the firm publicly to a line it may want to cross for a good reason. Describing the shape of a matter the firm is built for does the same work without the trap.

What to publish where the answer is no

Where the firm cannot help, the useful page names the alternative: a different matter type, a referral route, a legal aid or bar referral service. That costs nothing and it is the part readers remember.

It also removes the incentive to write a page that hedges. A firm confident about what it declines can be direct about what it takes, and directness is the thing that makes a practice area page readable rather than defensive.

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This is one attribute of the firm described in the enquiry flow acceptance criteria filter. That practice area sits inside where enquiries come from before they are filtered. The channel that depends on it is the bought leads those criteria filter.

Frequently asked questions

Should a law firm publish which cases it will not take?

Yes, and it costs fewer enquiries than it appears to, because most of those enquiries were going to be declined anyway after a consultation somebody had to give. Publishing limits lets a reader self-select before either party spends time.

What are acceptance criteria in practice?

A minimum case value, an injury threshold, matter types outside the firm’s competence, stages too late to take on, and clients whose expectations the firm cannot meet. Every firm has them whether written down or not, and they usually sit in one person’s judgement at intake.

What is the main benefit of writing them down?

Consistency at intake across whoever answers the phone, which is usually worth more than the marketing benefit. The second benefit is that a reader can self-select, which saves a consultation slot and avoids a disappointed caller who may say so publicly.

How should criteria be worded so the firm does not sound closed?

As a description of fit rather than a refusal, placed beside the matter it applies to rather than on a page of its own. What a firm handles and what it does not are the same question from two directions, and separating them makes the second read as a warning notice.

Should a firm publish a hard minimum case value?

Usually not, where judgement genuinely applies. A stated threshold invites people just below it to inflate the facts and commits the firm publicly to a line it may want to cross for a good reason. Describing the shape of a matter the firm is built for does the same work without the trap.

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