Short answer: elder law attorney website design should serve two readers at once: the adult child handling a family crisis and the older adult who may be the actual client. That means large, high-contrast type, a phone number that dominates every screen, pages built around situations like a nursing home admission or a dementia diagnosis, and intake copy that is honest about who the firm represents.
Most people do not go looking for an elder law attorney on a calm afternoon. They search from a hospital parking lot after a discharge planner mentions skilled nursing, or late at night after a neurologist confirms what the family already suspected. Sometimes the searcher is the older adult, sharp and annoyed, who wants to know what happens to the house if a spouse needs long-term care. A website for this practice has to work for the family and for the older adult.
Who is actually typing the search
The most common visitor is a family decision-maker: usually an adult child, sometimes a spouse, a niece, or a longtime friend who holds a power of attorney. They are stressed, reading on a phone, and do not know the vocabulary. They type “mom going into nursing home what do we do about her house” or “dad has dementia can he still sign papers,” not “Medicaid asset protection planning.”
The second visitor is the older adult. Many are comfortable online and resent being written around. Others read with reduced vision or a tremor that makes small tap targets frustrating. A site that talks only to the children tells the person whose life is being discussed that the firm does not see them.
Good copy handles this by addressing situations rather than roles. “If you or a parent needs nursing home care” works for both readers. “Worried about your aging parents?” works for one and alienates the other.
Elder law is not estate planning, and the site should say so
Many firms handle both elder law and estate planning, visitors cannot tell the difference, and a site that blurs the two loses the crisis searcher. Estate planning is largely about what happens after death and about orderly transfer: wills, revocable trusts, beneficiary designations. Elder law is about the living client’s final decades: paying for care, keeping decision-making authority in the right hands, protecting a person who can no longer protect themselves, and qualifying for public benefits.
That distinction should shape the navigation. A family facing a nursing home admission next week needs to land on a long-term care page, not a page about avoiding probate. If your firm does both, give them separate sections with separate calls to action. The design problems of a planning practice, which serves calmer clients planning years ahead, are covered in our estate planning lawyer website design service page.
The practice pages an elder law site needs
Each core service deserves its own page, written for the person living through it. Our general approach to law firm practice area pages applies, but the content inside these pages is specific to this field.
Long-term care and Medicaid planning
This is usually the highest-stakes page on the site. Families arrive believing they must spend everything before Medicaid will help. The page should explain in plain language that Medicaid eligibility for long-term care has financial rules, that a look-back period applies to past transfers, and that the rules vary by state and change over time. It should not recite numbers, thresholds, or month counts that will go stale or be wrong in the reader’s state. The goal is to replace panic with a clear next step: gather statements, do not move money on your own, and talk to an attorney before the application is filed.
Guardianship and conservatorship
Terminology here differs from state to state, and some states use one word for authority over the person and another for authority over finances. Use the terms your state uses, then explain them. A good page explains when court involvement is needed, what the process generally looks like, and what less restrictive alternatives might exist, and it acknowledges that the older adult has rights in the process.
Powers of attorney and health care directives
These documents overlap with estate planning, but in an elder law context the question is urgent and practical: can Dad still sign one? The page should explain the difference between financial and health care authority and why capacity at signing matters, without offering a capacity opinion on the reader’s parent.
Elder abuse and financial exploitation
Visitors to this page may be in danger or watching someone else be exploited. Put a short line near the top telling anyone in immediate danger to call 911, and mention that adult protective services exist in every state. Then describe the warning signs the firm sees, such as sudden changes to deeds or a caregiver who isolates the older adult. Watch the tone: a sibling reading this page may be the person being accused.
Veterans benefits
Many families never learn that a veteran or surviving spouse may qualify for VA benefits that help pay for care, including the pension benefit commonly called Aid and Attendance. If the firm handles these matters, say so, and state that the attorney is accredited by the VA if that is true, since VA accreditation is required to help prepare and present benefit claims and VA rules limit when fees can be charged. Do not publish benefit amounts; they change.
Mapping family situations to pages
The simplest way to plan the site is to start with the moments that send people searching, then decide which page catches each one and what that page must answer before the visitor will call.
| Family situation | Page to build | What it must answer |
|---|---|---|
| A parent is being discharged to a nursing home | Long-term care and Medicaid planning | Will we lose the house, and what should we avoid doing this week? |
| A dementia diagnosis was just confirmed | Planning after a dementia diagnosis | Can Mom still sign documents, and how soon should we act? |
| No power of attorney exists and capacity is gone | Guardianship and conservatorship | Do we need to go to court, how long does it take, and who can serve? |
| A sibling controls the money and will not share records | Family disputes over a parent’s care or finances | What rights do other children have, and can the firm help without taking sides? |
| A stranger or caregiver has access to accounts | Elder abuse and financial exploitation | Who do we report this to, and can the transfers be undone? |
| A parent served in the military | Veterans benefits for long-term care | Might VA benefits help pay for care, and is the attorney accredited? |
| The older adult is planning ahead alone | Planning for your own future care | What can I put in place now so my children are not forced into court later? |
Two of those, the dementia page and the family dispute page, are situation pages rather than practice areas. They match what the visitor is living through, which a service name rarely does.
Designing for older eyes and shaky thumbs
Readability is not a nice extra on an elder law site. It is the product. Body text should be larger than the 16 pixel default many themes ship with, with generous line spacing and short line lengths. Contrast should at least meet the WCAG AA standard of 4.5:1 for body text, which rules out the pale gray on white that many designer templates use. Avoid thin, light font weights entirely.
Navigation should be flat and literal. Five or six top-level items with plain names beat a mega menu. Buttons should look like buttons and be big enough to hit on the first try. Skip auto-playing carousels, pop-ups that cover the page, and text embedded in images. Anything that moves, hides, or times out loses older visitors and stressed adult children alike.
Why the phone number outranks the form
In this practice the phone is the primary conversion. Older clients often prefer to talk, and adult children in a crisis want a human voice more than a form confirmation. Put a large, tappable number at the top of every page and repeat it at the end of every service page. List office hours beside it, and say plainly what happens when someone calls after hours.
Forms still matter for the child who is at work and cannot make a call, so keep one, but make it short and ask who the form is about as well as who is filling it out. Our guidance on law firm website intake forms covers the mechanics. For this practice, add a field for the relationship to the older adult and a gentle note that the firm may need to speak with the older adult directly.
The contact page itself deserves attention too: parking, whether the office is accessible without stairs, and whether the attorney makes home, hospital, or facility visits. Our notes on law firm contact page design explain how to lay them out.
Seminar and workshop pages
Many elder law firms run free public seminars at libraries, senior centers, churches, or their own offices, and increasingly online. If yours does, each event should have its own page with the date, time, address, accessibility notes, and a simple registration option that includes a phone alternative. Remove past events promptly.
Treat seminar descriptions as advertising, because they are. Describe the topics accurately, avoid promising that attendees will “protect everything from the nursing home,” and keep any free meal or giveaway language within your state’s rules on solicitation and inducements.
Who is the client when the adult child calls
This is the ethical issue that shapes elder law intake more than any other, and the website sets expectations before the first call. When a daughter contacts the firm about her mother’s care, the mother is often the client, even if the daughter found the firm, made the appointment, and is paying the bill. Under the ABA Model Rules, the lawyer owes confidentiality to the client (Rule 1.6), must watch for conflicts between family members (Rule 1.7), and may accept payment from a third party only with the client’s informed consent and without interference in the lawyer’s judgment (Rule 1.8(f)).
Rule 1.14 addresses clients with diminished capacity. In general terms, it asks the lawyer to maintain a normal client-lawyer relationship as far as reasonably possible and allows limited protective action when a client is at risk and cannot act in their own interest. A short page explaining why the attorney may meet the parent privately, and cannot simply take instructions from the child, prevents a lot of friction.
Every page that touches legal topics should carry a line that the content is general information, not legal advice, and that reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Advertising rules vary by state, including rules about claiming certification. If an attorney holds the Certified Elder Law Attorney designation, Model Rule 7.2 generally requires the certifying organization to be clearly identified, and Rule 7.1 prohibits misleading communications of any kind. Look up your state in our attorney advertising rules by state hub. This is not legal advice; check your state bar’s rules before publishing.
Frequently asked questions
Should an elder law website be written for the older adult or the adult children?
Both. Write around situations such as “if you or a parent needs nursing home care” so the copy works for either reader, and never imply that the older adult is not part of the conversation.
Can an elder law site publish Medicaid eligibility numbers?
It is safer not to. Figures and look-back details vary by state and change over time. Explain that a look-back period exists and that rules differ by state, then invite the reader to call before moving any assets.
How large should the text be on an elder law website?
Larger than the typical 16 pixel theme default, with generous line spacing, heavy enough font weights, and contrast that meets at least the WCAG AA ratio of 4.5:1 for body text.
How should the site handle an adult child contacting the firm about a parent?
Explain up front that the parent may be the client, that the attorney may need to speak with the parent privately, and that confidentiality and conflict rules apply even when a child is paying. ABA Model Rule 1.14 covers clients with diminished capacity in general terms.
Do elder law firms need seminar pages?
Only if the firm runs seminars. When it does, give each event its own page with accessibility details and a phone registration option, remove past events, and treat the descriptions as advertising.
The short version
An elder law site is read by frightened adult children and by older adults who deserve to be addressed directly. Build pages around real family situations, keep elder law distinct from estate planning, make the type big and the phone number bigger, and explain honestly who the client is before anyone calls. Avoid stale benefit numbers and any promise to protect everything.
Want to know how your current elder law site reads to a family in crisis? Start with a free law firm SEO audit.
