Short answer: good class action lawyer website design is built around investigations, not practice areas. Each potential case gets its own page that explains what the firm is looking into and who may be affected, a short screening questionnaire, and a status that is kept current. A separate path speaks to referral and co-counsel attorneys, who judge the firm on very different evidence.
Most law firm sites are designed for one person with one problem. A class action practice does not work that way. The firm needs hundreds or thousands of people with the same problem to find one page, recognize themselves in it, and answer a few questions, while a lawyer two states away is deciding whether to send the firm a case. Those are different readers with different questions, and a template site built for a divorce or injury practice serves neither of them well.
Who lands on a class action site, and what each one wants
The first group is people who suspect they were harmed. They bought a product that failed, received a data breach letter, saw unexplained fees on a statement, or read a news story about a recall. They are not searching for “class action attorney.” They are searching for the product name, the company name plus “lawsuit,” or the exact phrase from the letter they received. Many of them are skeptical, because they have seen enough spam to assume anything mentioning compensation is a scam.
The second group already received a settlement notice in the mail or by email and wants to know whether it is real, what they are giving up by filing a claim, and whether they should opt out. Some of them are looking for the official claims site and land on your firm instead.
The third group is other lawyers. A consumer or employment attorney with a case that might be worth aggregating, or a firm looking for co-counsel with resources to carry a case through certification, will read your site with a professional eye. They care about the matters you have led, the courts you have appeared in, and how you structure referral relationships. They do not care about your intake questionnaire at all.
Investigation pages do most of the work
An investigation page is the core unit of a class action site. It takes one potential claim, describes it in plain language, and asks the reader to tell the firm whether it applies to them. A strong one covers what happened as publicly reported, which products, accounts, or time periods are involved, what kind of harm the firm is looking into, and what the reader should keep (receipts, statements, the notice letter, photographs of a defect).
Word choice matters more here than almost anywhere else on a law firm site. “We are investigating whether” is accurate when the firm is investigating. “Join the lawsuit” is not accurate when no complaint has been filed, and it may not be accurate even after filing, because putative class members generally do not join anything until a class is certified or a settlement is approved. ABA Model Rule 7.1 prohibits false or misleading communications about a lawyer’s services, and an investigation page that implies a case exists, or that compensation is likely, is the kind of statement a bar regulator will read closely. Write what is true at the date of publishing and nothing more.
Be careful with the company you are investigating, too. Describe what has been alleged or reported, attribute it, and avoid characterizing a business as having done something no court has found. That protects the firm and reads as more credible to the skeptical visitor anyway.
Advertising rules for this kind of page vary by jurisdiction, including rules on targeted outreach under Rule 7.3 and on required labels or disclaimers. Our attorney advertising rules by state hub is a starting point. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm the details with your own state bar before an investigation page goes live.
Settlement notice pages without confusing anyone
When a case settles, the court approves a notice program and a claims administrator usually runs the official settlement website. Your firm’s page about that settlement has a different job. It should explain the settlement in ordinary words, link prominently to the official site, and tell readers how to reach class counsel with questions. It should never look like the official claims site, never collect claim forms the court has directed to the administrator, and never state deadlines or amounts that differ from the court-approved notice.
The safest approach is to quote the deadlines and options directly from the approved notice and say so. Readers want four things: what the settlement covers, what they need to do to receive a payment, what they give up by participating, and what opting out or objecting means. Answer those in that order. Then put the official link at the top, again in the middle, and again at the end, because a large share of these visitors arrived looking for it.
If the firm is not class counsel, the page needs to say that plainly. A reader who believes they are talking to the lawyers who negotiated the deal, when they are not, has been misled even if every sentence on the page is technically correct.
Keeping case status pages honest over a long timeline
Class litigation runs for years. The page published the week a story broke will still be ranking long after the facts have moved on, and an outdated status is both an ethics problem and a trust problem. Put a visible “last updated” date near the top of every case page, write a one-line current status beneath it, and keep a short dated history further down so returning visitors can see what changed.
Assign one person to own updates and tie them to docket events rather than to a calendar reminder. The table below is the cadence we suggest firms build into their workflow.
| Case stage | What the page should say | What triggers an update |
|---|---|---|
| Investigation | What the firm is looking into, who may be affected, a screening form | A decision to file, or a decision to close the investigation |
| Complaint filed | Court, case name, the proposed class as defined in the complaint, that no class is certified yet | Rulings on motions to dismiss or transfer |
| Certification stage | Whether a class has been certified and its definition as approved | The certification order, appeals of it |
| Settlement pending approval | The proposed terms in summary, a link to the official notice and administrator | Preliminary approval, the final approval hearing date |
| Closed | Final outcome, and where class members can still get information | Distribution completed; then convert or redirect the page |
When an investigation ends without a filing, do not simply delete the page. Replace the body with a short note that the investigation has closed, remove the form, and link to related active investigations. If the page has no further value, redirect it to the closest active matter or the investigations index so the links it earned keep working.
A separate front door for referring attorneys
Referral counsel is often the most valuable visitor a class action firm gets, and most sites give them nothing beyond the consumer content. Build them a dedicated section reached from the main navigation with a label like “For Attorneys” or “Co-Counsel.”
What belongs there: the kinds of cases the firm takes and the ones it does not, the courts and districts where your attorneys regularly litigate, representative matters described in a way that complies with your state’s rules on past results (our guide to the law firm case results page covers the disclaimers), and a clear explanation of how referral or co-counsel relationships are structured. Keep the fee discussion general. Model Rule 1.5(e) addresses division of fees between lawyers in different firms, including client consent in writing, and the details vary by state, so the page should explain that arrangements are documented and comply with the applicable rules rather than promising any particular split.
Give attorneys their own contact form with fields that matter to them: their name and bar admission, a short description of the matter, the jurisdiction, and any deadlines they are working against. Route it to a partner, not the general intake queue.
Screening questionnaires that sort people, not just collect them
A class action intake form receives volume a typical firm never sees, and much of it will be from people outside the proposed class. The form should screen first and gather detail second. Ask the qualifying questions up front: did you buy the product, during which period, in which state, do you still have proof of purchase. Use conditional logic so a reader who falls outside the definition gets a polite explanation and an option to be notified if the scope changes, instead of a form that pretends to accept them.
Collect as little sensitive data as you can at this stage. Rule 1.6 protects information relating to the representation, and information from prospective clients is protected under Rule 1.18 even if no engagement follows. There is rarely a reason to request a full account number, Social Security number, or medical records through a web form. Collect those later through a secure channel after a lawyer has reviewed the submission. Add a short statement that submitting the form does not create an attorney-client relationship, and send an automatic confirmation that tells the person what happens next and roughly when they will hear back.
The broader principles of form design and follow-up apply here as on any firm site, and our piece on law firm website conversion rate walks through them. The class action twist is volume: test the form under load, and make sure submissions land in a system that can tag them by investigation.
Search demand arrives in surges
Interest in a given claim usually spikes when news breaks, a recall is announced, or breach letters land in mailboxes, then fades. The firm that has an accurate, useful page indexed in those first days collects most of the attention. That means the site has to make publishing fast. Use a consistent URL pattern such as /investigations/company-product/, a reusable page structure your team can fill in quickly, and an investigations index page that links to every active matter so search engines discover new pages without waiting.
Speed should never outrun accuracy. A two-paragraph page that is correct beats a long page padded with speculation. You can expand it as facts develop, and the “last updated” date tells readers it is maintained. For the general mechanics of building pages that rank, our guide to practice area pages applies to investigation pages too; the difference is that these pages have a lifespan and need a plan for the end of it.
This article covers one piece of the picture. The decisions every firm faces are in our lawyer website design guide.
Frequently asked questions
Should a class action firm put every investigation on its own page?
Yes. People search for the specific product, company, or incident, and one page per investigation is what lets the site match those searches. A single page listing every matter cannot rank for any of them and forces each visitor to hunt for their situation.
Can our site host the settlement claim form?
Usually not. The court-approved notice program generally directs claims to an appointed administrator, so your page should explain the settlement and link to the official site. Follow the approval order and the notice exactly, and ask the administrator if you are unsure.
How often should case status pages be updated?
Whenever something meaningful happens on the docket, and at least a review on a fixed schedule even when nothing has. Show the date of the last update near the top so readers can judge how current the information is.
What should we do with a page when an investigation closes?
Replace the content with a short closing note, remove the intake form, and point readers to related active matters. If the page no longer serves anyone, redirect it to the investigations index or the closest live matter instead of letting it return a 404.
Do referral attorneys really read a firm’s website?
They do, especially when they are choosing between firms they do not know personally. A dedicated attorney section with the courts you work in, representative matters, and a direct contact path makes that decision easier and keeps their inquiries out of the consumer intake queue.
The short version
Treat the investigation page as the unit of the site. Write each one accurately, screen visitors with a short conditional questionnaire, and keep a dated status on every matter. Explain settlements without imitating the official claims site. Give referring attorneys their own section and their own contact route. Plan for each page’s end as carefully as its launch.
If you want to see how your current investigation pages are indexed and where the gaps are, request a free law firm SEO audit and we will review them alongside the rest of the site.
