The seven factors
Each lawyer or firm receives a LexRank score from 0 to 100, built from seven weighted components:
Reputation
20%Recorded awards and board certifications, counted up to five.
Experience
30%Years in practice, with full credit at 25 years.
Practice-area relevance
20%Whether the lawyer or firm practices in the ranked area, and how focused that practice is.
Professional credentials
15%Active bar status, a verified license and education on record (firms: verified business and website).
Local relevance
5%Whether the lawyer or firm is based in the ranked city or state.
Data quality
10%How complete, source-backed and verified the profile's key facts are.
Weights belong to a versioned configuration. Changing them creates a new methodology version instead of silently altering published scores.
Evidence only. Since LexRank v1.2, the engine reads each value from the evidence layer: sources → claims → verified or sourced facts. A value on a profile without a source, or one where equally authoritative sources disagree, counts as missing until it is resolved. Earlier rankings keep the version that produced them.
Every position is explained. Each ranking entry has a “Why #N?” panel built from its score components - its strongest and weakest factors against the ranking average and what separates it from the entry above - and, after a recalculation, what changed: its own data, its components, competitors that moved past it, or a new methodology version. These explanations are computed from stored snapshots, never written by AI.
Client reviews
Client reviews do not affect the LexRank score: neither star ratings nor the number of reviews is scored. Reviews are shown on profiles for information only, and Reputation counts only awards on record, such as board certification. This applies to LexRank v1.2. Ratings from Google and other platforms may not be stored, so LexRanked collects its own reviews: the reviewer confirms their email address, states they were a client, and an editor reads every review before it is published on the profile. Until enough reviews exist to compare lawyers fairly, rankings use only verifiable records; when reviews are scored, it will be in a new methodology version with the volume adjustment below.
A 5.0 average from three reviews says much less than a 4.8 average from four hundred. When reviews are scored, LexRank uses a Bayesian average that pulls ratings with few reviews toward a neutral baseline, in proportion to how little evidence supports them:
adjusted rating = (C × m + n × r) / (C + n)r = average rating, n = number of reviews, m = baseline rating (4), C = confidence constant (25 reviews). Adjusted ratings of 3 or lower earn no review-strength points; 5.0 earns full points. We never copy review text or publish invented quotations.
Sources and evidence
Every important fact - bar status, years of experience, ratings, practice areas - is stored with the source it came from, when it was retrieved and how confident we are in it. When sources disagree, higher tiers take precedence:
| Tier | Source type |
|---|---|
| 1 | Official government, court, bar or regulatory sources |
| 2 | The lawyer's or firm's own official website |
| 3 | Reputable professional directories |
| 4 | Review platforms |
| 5 | Secondary sources |
If no reliable source exists, the field stays empty. A missing input scores zero for its component and lowers the data-quality component - it is never estimated.
Verification and freshness
A profile is marked verified only when every required check - such as identity, license and bar status for lawyers - has passed and none has expired. Each data point has a freshness target (for example 30 days for bar status and 7 days for review data), and profiles show when their data was last verified. Read more about verification.
Data quality (not a ranking)
Every profile also shows a Data Quality percentage. It measures how well the profile is documented - not how good the lawyer is - and it is not an input to the LexRank score. It is recalculated whenever the evidence changes and daily, because data ages.
| Dimension | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Completeness | 30% | Share of the expected facts that are on record with a source (core facts count double). |
| Freshness | 20% | Share of those facts checked within their freshness window (e.g. bar status 30 days, reviews 7 days). |
| Source quality | 20% | How authoritative the sources behind the facts are (tier 1 = 100, tier 5 = 20). |
| Verification coverage | 20% | Half verified facts, half the required verification checks (identity, license, bar status for lawyers). |
| Consistency | 10% | Share of facts whose best sources agree (no unresolved conflicts). |
Model dq-1.0. Across 8727 published profiles the average is 82.6%. The ranking has its own, separately published “data quality” factor above; the two are not combined.
Data sources
Every fact comes from a source, and sources are ranked by tier. When sources disagree, the higher tier wins; when sources of the same tier disagree, the fact is marked as conflicting and not used until it is resolved.
| Tier | Meaning | Source types |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Official / regulatory | Bar association, Government, Official registry |
| 2 | Official business / professional | Official website, Professional association |
| 3 | Reputable third-party directory | Professional directory |
| 4 | Review platform / editorial | Editorial, Review platform |
| 5 | Secondary / unclassified | Lexranked reviews, Other, Secondary, Social |
How often data is updated
- Scores: Daily, and within minutes of any change to profiles or evidence.
- Data quality: Daily, and whenever an entity's facts or verifications change.
- History: Every calculation is stored as an immutable snapshot with its inputs and methodology version: every run for 2 days, the last run of each day for 30 days, then the last run of each month.
Each kind of fact has its own freshness window; older facts are flagged for re-checking and count as stale:
| Data | Re-check after |
|---|---|
| Bar status and license | 30 days |
| Ratings and review counts | 7 days |
| Website and contact details | 30 days |
| Other profile facts | 90 days |
When a page exists
LexRanked does not create a page because a search term exists. A ranking, city, state or practice-area page exists only when the database holds enough published profiles for it, and it is indexed by search engines only when that data is real, verified and backed by sources. Below the threshold the page is not published, or is published but kept out of search. The same rules decide the sitemap.
| Page | Requirement | Minimum | Needed to |
|---|---|---|---|
| State, city, practice area | Published lawyersA state, city or practice-area page needs at least this many published lawyers. | 3 | Exist |
| Lawyers with real (non-demo) dataDemo records never make a page indexable. | 3 | Be indexed | |
| Verified lawyersAt least one lawyer on the page has a fully verified profile. | 1 | Be indexed | |
| Evidence coverageAverage share of expected facts backed by a source. | 50% | Be indexed | |
| Ranking | Ranked entitiesFewer entries than this make a thin ranking (configurable per ranking). | 5 | Exist |
| Built from real (non-demo) dataDemo rankings are never indexed. | Yes | Be indexed | |
| Verified entriesEntries with fully verified profiles. | 3 | Be indexed | |
| Evidence coverageAverage share of expected facts backed by a source across the entries. | 60% | Be indexed | |
| Context confirmed by dataContextual ("best for") rankings only: enough entities confirmed by facts, enough of them verified, and different from the broader ranking. | 1 | Exist | |
| Lawyer or firm profile | Real (non-demo) recordDemo profiles are never indexed. | Yes | Be indexed |
| Evidence coverageShare of expected facts backed by a source; thinner profiles stay noindex. | 40% | Be indexed | |
| Guide | Real (non-demo) contentDemo articles are never indexed. | Yes | Be indexed |
| WordsShorter guides are thin. | 300 | Be indexed | |
| Comparison | Compared entitiesA comparison needs two to four entities. | 2 | Exist |
| Curated for searchComparisons are built on request for any pair and stay noindex until an editor curates them. | 1 | Be indexed | |
| Listing | Real (non-demo) profiles listedListing pages are noindex until they list real profiles. | Yes | Be indexed |
Rules pe-1.0.
Payment independence
Lawyers and firms may claim profiles or purchase featured placements in the future. These are stored separately from the organic score, are always labelled as paid, and are never an input to the scoring engine.
Frequently asked questions
Do client reviews affect the LexRank score?
Client reviews do not affect the LexRank score: neither star ratings nor the number of reviews is scored. Reviews are shown on profiles for information only, and Reputation counts only awards on record, such as board certification.
Can a lawyer pay for a better position?
No. Claimed profiles, premium profiles and featured or sponsored placements are stored separately from the organic score, always labelled as paid, and never an input to the scoring engine.
What makes up the LexRank score?
Reputation (20 points), Experience (30 points), Practice-area relevance (20 points), Professional credentials (15 points), Local relevance (5 points), Data quality (10 points), calculated only from facts with a cited source. The same data and methodology version always produce the same score.
What a ranking is - and isn't
Rankings summarize publicly available and verified information to help you build a shortlist. They are not legal advice, an endorsement or a guarantee of outcome. LexRanked is a lawyer directory, not a law firm, and is not affiliated with any state bar.