Can AI Cite a Real URL but Misrepresent What My Legal Services Page Says?

How common is it?

Common enough to check routinely. A 2023 Stanford study of four generative search engines found that only 51.5% of generated sentences were fully supported by their citations, and 74.5% of citations supported the sentence they were attached to. In a March 2025 test by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, eight AI search tools asked to identify the source of news excerpts were collectively wrong on more than 60% of queries, and often answered with confidence rather than declining. Legal pages are not immune, and their qualifiers are exactly the details summaries drop.

What kinds of misrepresentation happen on legal pages?

Why does it happen?

• Passages, not pages. Assistants retrieve and quote passages. A passage that states a service without its limits is quoted without them.
• Compression. Summaries cut qualifiers first, because they look like detail.
• Negation errors. Lists of work you do not take are read as lists of work you do.
• Mixed content on one domain. Explanatory blog posts about the law sit beside service pages, and the two are blended.
• Citation after composition. An answer can be assembled from several sources, then given the citation that best matches the topic, which may be yours.
• Old versions. A cached or outdated version of the page said something different.

How do you audit cited answers?

1. Collect answers that cite your pages, for the questions prospective clients ask: "Does [firm] handle [case type] in [state]?", "How much does [firm] charge?", "Does [firm] offer free consultations?", "[firm] results".
2. Split each answer into claims about your firm, and note the URL cited for each.
3. Open the cited page and find the passage that the claim could come from.
4. Classify each claim: - Supported: the page says it, with the same limits. - Overgeneralised: the page says something narrower. - Unsupported: the page does not say it. - Contradicted: the page says the opposite.
5. Tally the results. For example, of 40 claims across 15 answers, 24 might be supported, 7 overgeneralised, 6 unsupported and 3 contradicted. That gives a support rate of 60%, with 9 claims, or 22.5%, unsupported or contradicted.
6. Trace the cause for each problem claim: a missing qualifier, a negation, a blog post, or another source.

Keep a record of the audit. If a prospective client later relies on a wrong answer, it shows what your pages actually said. How compliance teams check whether citations come from approved pages is covered in how a compliance officer can tell whether an AI citation comes from an unapproved webpage.

What should you change on the page?

• Put limits in the same sentence as the service. "We represent injured people in Texas state and federal courts" rather than "We represent injured people" with "Texas" in the footer.
• Give each fee model its own sentence, attached to its case type. "For personal injury cases, we work on a contingency fee. For business disputes, we bill hourly."
• State conditions next to offers. "Initial consultations are free for personal injury enquiries."
• Replace negative lists with positive scope. "We practise family law and estate planning" is harder to misread than "We do not handle criminal, immigration or tax matters". If you need to say what you do not do, write each as a full sentence.
• Keep results in context. Put the disclaimer next to each result, not at the foot of the page.
• Label general information. On blog posts that explain the law, say that the post is general information, not legal advice, and link to the relevant service page for what the firm actually does.
• Remove or update old pages that describe services, fees or locations you no longer offer.

How assistants read visible text compared with markup is covered in whether AI systems cite visible page text instead of JSON-LD.

What professional rules should you keep in mind?

Most US states base their advertising rules on ABA Model Rule 7.1, which prohibits false or misleading communications about a lawyer's services. The commentary notes that truthfully reporting past results can still mislead if it leads people to form an unjustified expectation. That expectation is that the same result could be had for other clients without regard to the facts of each case. An AI answer is not your communication. But a page whose limits are easy to lose invites exactly the misreading the rule is concerned with. Clearer pages also serve prospective clients better. Check your own state's rules on results, disclaimers and fee statements.

What else can you do?

• Report clear misstatements through the assistant's feedback option, quoting the answer and the page.
• Correct third-party sources that may be feeding the wrong detail, such as directory profiles listing practice areas you do not cover.
• Retest after changing the page, using the same questions, and redo the tally.

What might an illustrative case look like?

Consider an illustrative six-lawyer firm practising employment law for employees in two states. AI answers citing its home page said it "represents employers and employees nationwide" and "works on contingency for all cases". The home page said "We handle employment disputes", with the states in a footer. Its fee page explained contingency fees for wrongful termination but hourly fees for contract reviews. A blog post about employer obligations was being read as an employer-side service. The firm rewrote the home and service pages so each statement named the states and the client side, and attached each fee model to its case type. It labelled the blog post as general information. A second audit a month later found the support rate had risen from 55% to 85%.

What do people ask about AI misrepresenting legal pages?

Is the firm responsible for an AI's misstatement?

The statement is the assistant's, but your page should be accurate and hard to misread. Keep audit records.

Should we remove our case results?

Not necessarily. Keep each result in context, with the required disclaimer next to it.

How often should we audit?

Quarterly, and after changes to services, fees or locations.