Should your law firm publish case timelines so AI assistants recommend you?

Duration is a top-three hiring factor

Clients choosing a lawyer weigh three things above all: cost, likelihood of success, and how long it will take. Most firm sites address cost at least vaguely and success through case results, then say nothing about duration. That gap is exactly where the assistant steps in, and it cites whoever filled it.

The queries are specific: 'how long does an uncontested divorce take in Texas,' 'how long does probate take,' 'how long does a personal injury case take to settle.' Each is a long-tail query with clear intent, and each is answerable only by a firm that publishes the answer. Generic national content cannot beat a local firm page with local timelines.

Publish ranges by matter type, not one number

Build a timeline section for each practice area with three numbers: the straightforward case, the typical case, and the complex one. 'Uncontested divorce with no children: 2 to 4 months. Contested with custody disputes: 9 to 18 months.' Ranges are honest and quotable; single numbers are neither, because no case is exactly average.

Name the phases inside the timeline: filing, discovery, negotiation or mediation, trial if it comes to that. Clients do not just want the total; they want to know what happens when. Phase-level detail is what makes a page feel authoritative to both the reader and the assistant, and it is what gets quoted in follow-up questions.

Add the communication cadence for each phase: when the client hears from you, what updates look like, and what silence means. 'During discovery you will hear from us every two weeks; no news means the other side is still producing documents, not that your case stalled.' Timeline anxiety is really communication anxiety, and a page that addresses both gets cited for both.

Name what stretches and compresses the timeline

Every matter type has accelerators and delays, and publishing them builds the trust that earns citations. Court backlogs, uncooperative opposing parties, and missing documentation stretch timelines; complete paperwork, responsive clients, and early mediation compress them. Stating these plainly shows the firm understands the process rather than just selling it.

Be candid about what the client controls. 'Cases move fastest when clients return documents within a week and keep scheduled appointments' sets expectations and subtly pre-qualifies. Assistants favor pages that give the user agency, because those pages produce better outcomes, and outcome quality is what keeps a firm recommended.

Name the surprises too: the mandatory mediation that adds two months, the expert witness scheduling that pushes trial dates, the appeal window after a judgment. Clients fear the unknown timeline more than the long one, and a page that maps the full journey, delays included, is the page the assistant trusts with a nervous questioner.

Keep timelines jurisdiction-specific

Legal timelines are local: filing backlogs, mandatory waiting periods, and court schedules vary by county, not just by state. A page with your jurisdiction's actual numbers beats a national average every time, for both the human reader and the assistant answering a local query. Name the courts and the typical waits.

Review the numbers annually at minimum. Backlogs shift, rules change, and a timeline page that drifts out of date quietly poisons its own credibility. Date-stamp the page so readers and assistants can see the numbers are current; freshness is a ranking factor in citation-worthiness as much as in search.