What a Plaintiff Firm’s Website Should Say About an Active Case.

What the public record says, kept current, and nothing more. The claim and the parties, what the complaint alleges, the schedule and the result of each step, and what a person who may be affected should do next. No predictions about the outcome, no opinions about witnesses, no figures that are not public, and no testimonial that implies a result. The trial publicity rule governs the lawyer’s statements wherever they appear, and a web page is a statement that is published every day. Your state’s advertising rules govern the rest, and counsel reads both.

Why the page matters more than the release

A future client searches the drug, the device or the accident by name, and a reporter searches the case. The firm’s own case page is what a search engine and, increasingly, an AI answer tool surface for both. A page that was written the day the case was filed and never touched again leaves the field to the defendant’s facts page, which is updated every time a story or a verdict breaks. Accurate, regular updates on the public status of the matter keep the firm’s name attached to the search, and keep the record an algorithm reads matching the record that is true.

What to put on it

The complaint, as filed. The court and the docket number. A plain-language account of what is alleged, in the complaint’s own terms. The schedule: the next hearing, the next ruling, the bellwether dates. Each public ruling, dated, as it comes. Who at the firm a person can contact, and what to have ready. A line that says the page describes allegations in a pending case and will be updated as the public record changes.

What to keep off it

Anything the comment to the trial publicity rule lists: character or credibility of a party or witness, expected testimony, test results, evidence that may not come in. Any prediction of the result. Any settlement figure that is not public. Any client story told without written consent, and any testimonial that reads as a promise. Any language borrowed from another firm’s intake page, because the firms whose pages imitate yours are a finding, not a model.

Check it the way the defense will

Search your firm’s name and the product from the venue. Note who ranks above you and whose ad sits on your name. Then read your own page as a defense researcher would, looking for the sentence that overstates. That check takes an hour, and it is the free one. Case updates are a search strategy most firms ignore → Is the defendant buying ads on your firm’s name? →