Can solicitors use client reviews and testimonials in their marketing?

The three sets of rules

• The SRA Code of Conduct (current version in effect from 11 April 2025). Paragraph 8.8: publicity about your practice must be accurate and not misleading. Paragraph 6.3: you keep the affairs of current and former clients confidential. Paragraph 1.2: you don't take unfair advantage of clients or others. The Code of Conduct for Firms applies the same client-information and publicity standards to firms (paragraph 7.1(c)).
• The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, paragraph 13. In force from 6 April 2025, it bans submitting or commissioning fake reviews or reviews that hide an incentive, and publishing reviews or review information in a misleading way. The CMA's guidance (CMA208) explains how it applies.
• The CAP Code (the advertising rules the ASA enforces, edition 12). Rules 3.44 to 3.46 cover consumer reviews, and 3.47 to 3.50 cover testimonials.

Asking clients for reviews

The SRA's guidance on online reviews treats encouraging clients to review you as normal, and suggests sending a link to the review site. Ask everyone, or everyone at a set point such as completion, not only the clients you expect to be happy. The CMA's guidance (paragraph 4.5) says cherry-picking can be done "by encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews", and it warns against arbitrarily stopping and starting review invitations.

Offering something for a review (a prize draw, a discount) isn't banned in itself, but the incentive must be made clear. The ASA's advice is that rewarding only positive reviews is likely to be a problem. For a law firm, the simplest course is not to incentivise at all.

Replying to reviews

The SRA encourages replying, including to negative reviews, professionally. The firm line is confidentiality: a reply must not confirm details of the matter, even when the client has posted them first. If a review contains confidential information, the SRA suggests simply acknowledging it and contacting the client directly.

The SRA also says it would not expect you to pressure a client to withdraw a negative review. If you believe a review isn't from a genuine client, its guidance is to check with the review site first. You can then post a neutral reply that you haven't been able to verify the review comes from a client, and ask the site to look at it.

Showing reviews on your website or in ads

• No cherry-picking. Showing positive reviews while hiding or removing negative ones, or giving the positives more prominence, counts as publishing in a misleading way under both Schedule 20 and CAP rule 3.46. A live feed from the review platform, or a link to it next to your quotes, is the safest way to show you aren't selecting.
• Keep the evidence and the permission. CAP rule 3.47 requires documentary evidence that a testimonial is genuine, plus contact details for the person. Rule 3.50 requires permission to use it (with narrow exceptions for published sources). Take a screenshot of the original, with the date, and keep the client's written consent on file.
• It must relate to what you're selling. A glowing review of your conveyancing team shouldn't sit on your employment page (CAP rule 3.48).
• Watch what the quote implies. A testimonial saying "they won my case in a week" makes a factual claim on your behalf. CAP rule 3.49 says factual claims in testimonials must not mislead, and SRA paragraph 8.8 applies to the whole page. Don't let a quote promise results you couldn't stand behind.
• Confidentiality still applies. Even with a client's consent, think twice before naming them or describing the matter in a way that identifies anyone else involved.

A quick checklist

1. Invite every client to review at the same point, with the same wording.
2. No incentives, or, if there are any, make them clear and never tie them to a positive review.
3. Reply politely, and never confirm any detail of the matter.
4. Never pressure anyone to remove a genuine review.
5. Keep the original, the date and written permission for every testimonial you reuse.
6. Link to or embed the full review profile rather than a hand-picked selection.
7. Read every quote as if it were your own claim, because under the rules it is.

This guide is general information about marketing rules, not legal advice on a particular situation. Check the current versions of the rules linked below, or take advice, before relying on it for your firm.