How we select family lawyers

What a shortlist is, and what it isn't

Each city page is a shortlist of family law firms with an office in that city. It's a starting point for people who don't know where to begin. It isn't a list of every good family lawyer in the city, and it isn't a recommendation for any particular person's situation.

Step 1: finding every firm we can

For each city we search for family law firms the way a person looking for one would, using searches like "family lawyers", "divorce lawyer" and "property settlement lawyer" with the city and its main suburbs. We also go through the law society's published list of accredited family law specialists for that state, which turns up firms that don't advertise much.

Every distinct firm we find goes on a longlist with a note on whether it was included and why. The "firms checked" number on each city page is the length of that longlist. Across the cities published so far, that's 431 firms.

Step 2: who can be included

A firm can be on a city shortlist if:

• it has a staffed office in that city, with a street address on its own website;
• family law is its main practice, or it has a clearly identified family law team in that office;
• it names the lawyers who work there.

We leave out referral and lead-generation services, firms that only offer virtual meetings with no local lawyers, barristers, firms where family law is a minor sideline, and firms whose websites we couldn't check. Legal Aid and community legal centres aren't on the shortlists because they aren't private firms, but every city page lists the local ones separately.

Step 3: what we check about each firm

For every firm we consider, we read its own website: home, team, contact and family law service pages, plus the profiles of its most senior family lawyers. We record only what the firm states, and we keep the link for every detail we use. Each listing has a "Where this comes from" section with those links and the date we read them.

We check accreditation separately. A lawyer is only shown as an accredited family law specialist on this site if we found them on the specialist list published by the law society that accredits them. If a firm's website says someone is a specialist and we can't find them on the list, we don't repeat the claim.

Step 4: choosing the shortlist

From the eligible firms we pick up to ten per city. We look at, in rough order:

1. Family law focus. Firms that only do family law, or have a substantial family law team, come before general practices.
2. Depth in that office. How many named family lawyers work from the city office, and how senior they are.
3. Accredited specialists confirmed on the official list.
4. Clear information for clients. Whether the firm says who you'll deal with, what it handles, how it works and how first meetings are arranged.
5. Variety. A useful list has a mix: small specialist practices, larger teams, firms that lead with mediation or collaborative practice, and firms with particular strengths such as complex property or international matters.

We don't give firms scores. Two offices of the same firm don't both go on one city list. Smaller cities may have fewer than ten firms listed, because we don't pad a list to reach a number.

The order of firms on a page

Where firms on a city page are numbered, the numbers are an editorial order, not a score. We don't measure the quality of a firm's advice or its results, and we can't. The order reflects how we weighed the criteria above using what each firm publishes and what the law society records: family law focus first, then the number of accredited specialists we could confirm in that office, then how clearly the firm explains who you would deal with and how it charges, while keeping variety on the list.

Firms close to each other in the order aren't meaningfully different, and a lower number doesn't mean a firm is a worse choice for a particular matter. Google ratings don't affect the order, and no firm can pay to be listed or to change its position.

Google ratings

Where we show a Google rating, it's the rating and review count from the firm's Google Business Profile, refreshed regularly and labelled as a Google rating. We only show it once a firm has at least 5 reviews. Ratings don't change the order of a shortlist. We don't hide or remove a firm because of its rating, and we don't quote individual reviews. Family law reviews deserve some care: they are sometimes left by the other party to a dispute, and many firms have only a handful.

What we don't check

We haven't used these firms ourselves, interviewed them or reviewed their files. We can't tell you how a firm will handle your matter, what it will cost, or what result you'll get. Fees in family law depend heavily on the matter, so we only mention fees where a firm publishes them. Always ask a firm about costs, who will do the work, and how they'll keep you updated before you engage them.

Paid placements

There are no paid listings or sponsored placements on this site. No firm has paid to be on any shortlist, and none can. The advertising disclosure has the detail.

Updates and corrections

Each city page shows when it was last updated. Firms change: lawyers move, offices close, services change. If something on a page is wrong or out of date, please tell us with a link to where the correct information is published. Firms can ask us to correct their details at any time, and there's no charge for that.