Why does ChatGPT get my law firm's details wrong, and how do I fix it?

I’m a marketer, not a lawyer, and nothing here is legal advice. If an AI answer says something about your firm that could mislead a client, your ethics counsel may have a view on what you need to correct and how fast. This page covers finding and fixing the source.

How often AI gets the facts wrong

Named doesn’t mean described correctly. In my AI answers field report, between 15% and 35% of the answers that named a business got at least one fact wrong (per-business range for the 5 businesses whose facts were graded, in different industries, not law firms specifically).

The businesses’ own records disagreed too. In the shorter snapshot checks, part of the same data, pooled across 9 businesses in different industries, not law firms specifically, 4 of 4 businesses had facts that disagreed across their own website, Google profile and listings, at least 6 facts each. When an assistant finds two versions of a fact, it picks one, blends them, or hedges.

I’d fix accuracy before chasing new mentions. A wrong phone number or office reaches the client who already typed your name, which is the client closest to calling.

Where the wrong versions come from

For a law firm, the wrong versions usually come from a few places:

• The state bar record. If the address or firm name on your bar record is old, directories that compile from bar data copy it.
• Directory profiles nobody claimed. Avvo, Justia, FindLaw and others build profiles whether you claim them or not.
• Phone numbers and hours. A tracking number, an old main line, or holiday hours nobody reset.
• The firm’s own site. A footer address that differs from the contact page, an old practice-area page still live, a bio that gives one number of years in practice and the About page another.
• Old names. A firm that renamed or merged keeps its old name on listings for years.

Trace each wrong fact to its source

1. Ask by name and log it. Use questions 1 to 6 in the free What AI says about you template: what the firm is, reviews, address and hours, practice areas, who runs it, fees. Three runs on each assistant your clients use. Write each wrong fact down word for word.
2. Ask where it came from. In my audits, Perplexity, ChatGPT with search, Copilot and Google’s AI Mode listed the sites they drew on for most answers, which is how I recorded each answer’s sources. Open them. If the assistant shows no source, search the wrong fact in quotes.
3. Fill the ledger. One row per fact, one column per source: website, bar record, Google profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, each directory, and what AI said. The row where the wrong value appears is your fix list.

Fix in this order

1. State bar record. Directories copy it. Avvo, for one, asks you to enter your details “exactly as they appear on your state bar registration” when you claim a profile (Avvo, checked October 27, 2026).
2. Google Business Profile. Google’s guideline is to “represent your business as it’s consistently represented and recognized in the real world,” with “a precise, accurate address” (Google Business Profile guidelines, checked October 27, 2026). Name, address, phone, hours, categories and website should match the bar record.
3. Bing Places and Apple Business Connect. They feed maps outside Google. Claim both.
4. Legal directories. Claim and correct them. The law directory guide walks through Avvo, Justia, FindLaw and Super Lawyers.
5. Your own site. One address and phone in the footer and on the contact page, a dated bio for each attorney, and old practice-area pages either updated or redirected. Mark up the firm as a LegalService in your structured data with the same name, address and phone.

How long until the answers change

I don’t have enough re-tests to give you a reliable timeline. Assistants that search the web at answer time can pick up a corrected listing as soon as they read it. Answers drawn from what a model learned in training can lag much longer.

So re-check on a schedule: the same questions, the same assistants, three runs each, a month after you fix the sources. Compare counts of wrong facts, not single answers. If a wrong fact survives, look for a source you missed.

When it isn’t a listing

Sometimes the wrong fact comes from a news story, a court record or a forum post you can’t edit. Don’t post rebuttals on the sites that carry it. Publish the correct fact clearly on your own site and your claimed profiles, so the assistants have a consistent version to weigh against it.

For the other half of the problem, firms that are described correctly but rarely named, read why ChatGPT recommends other law firms.

When to bring me in

Bring me in when AI answers get your hours, address or services wrong, when they name competitors for the work you want, or when you’ve fixed your listings and want to know whether the answers changed.

I'm Conner Crowe, and I write every audit myself. Send your website and your market. There’s nothing to grant, and within 48 hours you'll have a written read on what each AI assistant says about you and where the wrong facts come from. No call needed, and nothing in your account or store changes.

Get a free AI answer snapshot →

Or run the check yourself with the free What AI says about you template.