How ChatGPT and AI Search Are Changing Criminal Defense Attorney Marketing

A person charged with DUI used to type a few words into Google and scan a page of links. Now many of them ask a full question instead, in ChatGPT, in Perplexity, or in the AI answer that sits above Google’s regular results: “My son was arrested for DUI in Riverside last night, what happens next and who should we call?” The answer comes back as a few paragraphs, sometimes with a handful of firm names and links.

That shift changes where criminal defense marketing effort should go. This guide explains what has changed, how AI tools seem to choose the firms and pages they mention, what a defense firm can do about it, and the ethics questions that come with using AI in your own marketing and intake.

What changed in search

Three launches moved AI answers into everyday use. Google began showing AI Overviews to US searchers in May 2024. OpenAI added web search to ChatGPT in October 2024, so its answers could cite current pages. In May 2025, Google rolled out AI Mode, a conversational search tab, to users across the US. Perplexity, Gemini and Claude all offer similar answer-with-sources experiences.

For a defense firm, the practical effect is that some searchers now read a summary before they ever see a list of firms. Questions about process, such as what happens at an arraignment or whether a first offense means jail, are especially likely to get a direct AI answer. Some of those people still click through to a source. Others call the first firm named.

None of this replaced Google’s map pack or regular results, which still matter a great deal for urgent local searches. It added another place where your firm can be named or left out.

How AI tools choose what to mention

AI assistants that answer questions about current, local topics generally run a web search in the background, read some of the pages that come back, and write an answer from them. The details differ by product and change often, and none of the companies publish a full recipe. A few patterns are consistent enough to plan around.

The pages that get used tend to answer the question clearly, near the top. Facts that appear the same way across several trustworthy sources, such as your website, your Google Business Profile, your state bar listing and legal directories, are easier for a model to repeat with confidence. Reviews and local news coverage give the tools more material to describe a firm.

There is no form to fill in and no setting that guarantees a mention. What you can control is how clear, consistent and accessible your information is.

Write pages that AI can quote

The habits that make a charge page useful to a nervous reader also make it easy for an AI tool to quote correctly.

• Put the direct answer in the first two or three sentences, then explain
• Name your state’s statute, the charge level and the possible penalties in plain words
• Describe local procedure specifically: which court, how arraignments are scheduled, how the license hearing works for a DUI
• Add a short question-and-answer section using the questions clients actually ask you
• Show who wrote or reviewed the page, with a link to the attorney’s bio and bar admission
• Date the page and update it when the law changes

Vague, padded copy hurts here. A page that spends three paragraphs saying your firm “fights for you” before mentioning the charge gives an AI tool nothing worth quoting.

Keep your firm’s facts consistent

When an assistant describes your firm, it pieces the description together from whatever it finds. If your website says you handle federal cases, your directory profiles don’t mention them, and an old listing shows a previous office address, the result can be wrong or vague.

Make a short master record of your firm’s details: legal name, address, phone, hours, attorneys, bar admissions, counties served and the charges you handle. Then check it against your Google Business Profile, your state bar profile, the legal directories you appear in and your social profiles. Fix anything that doesn’t match. This is the same consistency work local SEO has always needed, and it now pays off twice.

Every few months, ask the major assistants about your own firm and about the charges you defend in your city. Write down which firms get named, and check every detail the tools give about yours. When something is wrong, the fix is usually on a source page somewhere, not in the AI tool itself.

Let the right crawlers in

Some firms block AI crawlers without realizing it, through a robots.txt file, a security plugin or a setting at their hosting or CDN provider. Others block all of them on purpose and then wonder why they never appear in AI answers.

The crawlers do different jobs. OpenAI’s documentation separates OAI-SearchBot, which decides whether a site can appear in ChatGPT search answers, from GPTBot, which collects content that may be used to train its models. Blocking GPTBot doesn’t remove you from ChatGPT search, but blocking OAI-SearchBot does. On Google’s side, the Google-Extended setting controls use of your content for Gemini training and grounding, and Google says it does not affect inclusion in Google Search, where AI Overviews live. Perplexity and Anthropic document their own crawlers as well.

Decide deliberately. Many defense firms choose to allow search crawlers so their public pages can be cited, whatever they decide about training. Ask whoever manages your site to check robots.txt and any firewall or bot-management settings against that decision.

Using AI in your own marketing

Many firms now use AI tools to draft blog posts, charge pages and social content. That can save time, but the responsibility stays with the lawyer.

ABA Formal Opinion 512, issued in July 2024, addresses lawyers’ use of generative AI. It ties that use to existing duties, including competence, confidentiality and supervision. For marketing, the practical points are simple. Check every statute number, penalty and procedural claim an AI draft contains, because these tools can state wrong facts with full confidence. Don’t paste client details into a public AI tool to write a case result or testimonial. And remember that your website is still lawyer advertising under ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state’s version of it, whoever drafted it.

Google’s position is that it rewards helpful content however it was produced, but its spam policies, updated in March 2024, target scaled content abuse: large numbers of pages produced mainly to manipulate rankings. Fifty near-identical city pages generated by AI fit that description. A few well-researched pages that an attorney reviewed do not.

Chatbots and AI intake

AI chat widgets that greet visitors and collect case details are becoming common on law firm sites. They can capture people who won’t call, especially late at night. They also raise ethics questions.

The Florida Bar’s Ethics Opinion 24-1, issued in January 2024, is one of the more specific state opinions on this. It says a lawyer must tell prospective clients they are communicating with an AI program, and it warns against chatbots that give legal advice or that could create a lawyer-client relationship without the lawyer knowing. Other states have issued their own guidance, so check your state bar’s opinions before adding a chatbot.

In practice, a defense firm chatbot should identify itself as automated, collect contact details and a short description, avoid commenting on the merits of a case, and hand off quickly to a person. Test it yourself with the kinds of messages a frightened family member would send.

Measuring what AI search sends you

AI referrals are harder to track than regular search. Some visits arrive with a clear referrer, such as chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai, and show up in Google Analytics 4 under referral traffic. Many don’t, because people read the answer, then search your firm’s name or call the number they saw.

Two simple habits help. Create a GA4 report or exploration for referral traffic from the main AI tools so you can watch the trend. And ask every new caller how they found you, with “an AI assistant” as one of the options your intake staff records. Over a few months, that combination gives you a reasonable picture.

Questions defense lawyers ask about AI search

Do I need a separate AI strategy apart from SEO?

Mostly no. The work overlaps heavily: clear charge pages, accurate profiles, reviews and consistent facts. The main additions are checking crawler settings and asking the assistants about your firm from time to time.

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT or Perplexity?

Not inside the answers themselves. OpenAI began testing labeled ads in ChatGPT in 2026 and says ads don’t influence its responses, and Perplexity has tested sponsored placements too. Those are ads shown apart from the answer, and lawyer advertising rules apply to them like any other ad. Be wary of any vendor that promises guaranteed AI recommendations.

Should I block AI crawlers to protect my content?

That’s a business decision. Blocking training crawlers and allowing search crawlers is a common middle path. Blocking everything means your pages can’t be cited in those tools’ answers.

Is it safe to use AI to write my website content?

It can be, with attorney review of every fact and claim. Keep client information out of public tools, and check your state bar’s guidance on AI use.

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This guide is part of SBD Marketing’s series on criminal defense marketing. SBD Marketing works only with criminal defense law firms, helping them get found in Google, the map pack and AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity.

SBD Marketing · info@sbdmarketing.agency · Book a call: sbdmarketing.agency/scheduling · Serving criminal defense law firms across the USA · sbdmarketing.agency