Criminal Defense Lawyers: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which criminal defense law firm leads the AI recommendation benchmark in October 2026?
• Which brand saw the largest recommendation coverage decline since baseline?
• How much did the number of qualified benchmark observations change?

Kraut Law Group leads the Criminal Defense Lawyers benchmark in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 22.5%, up from 19.9% in July 2026. The next closest brand is Spodek Law Group at 16.3% in October 2026, down from 27.9% in July 2026, leaving a 6.2 percentage-point gap between the two leaders.

The largest coverage increase since baseline belonged to Kraut Law Group, which rose from 19.9% in July 2026 to 22.5% in October 2026, a gain of 2.6 points. The largest coverage decline since baseline belonged to Spodek Law Group, which fell from 27.9% in July 2026 to 16.3% in October 2026, a decline of 11.6 points.

Spodek Law Group is the only brand whose coverage moved beyond normal month-to-month variation this month, classified as a significant decliner. Goldstein Mehta is flagged as a watch item after three consecutive monthly increases, though the cumulative move remains within normal variation.

The benchmark began with 314 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 129 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. In October 2026, all six families were represented, up from four in July 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Criminal Defense Lawyers

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many raw prompt observations narrowed down to qualified benchmark observations?
• Why does the public benchmark denominator differ from the raw collection universe?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which criminal defense law firms received the highest valid recommendation coverage?
• What is the difference between presence rate, valid recommendation coverage, top-three rate, and rank-one rate?

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in any capacity. Valid recommendation coverage is the share where the brand receives a valid recommendation. Top-three rate is the share where the brand appears among the first three recommended options. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand is the first or only recommendation. Net sentiment measures the tone of mentions on a scale from negative to positive.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which criminal defense law firms gained or lost recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• What drove the coverage increase for Kraut Law Group?
• What drove the coverage decline for Spodek Law Group?

Largest Increase: Kraut Law Group

Kraut Law Group rose from 19.9% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 22.5% in October 2026, a gain of 2.6 points. The move from September 2026 to October 2026 was 8.1 points, the largest single-month change in its series. Rank-one rate rose from 0.7% in July 2026 to 7.0% in October 2026, a gain of 6.3 points. Presence rate declined from 56.6% in July 2026 to 39.5% in October 2026, a drop of 17.1 points.

Largest Decline: Spodek Law Group

Spodek Law Group fell from 27.9% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 16.3% in October 2026, a decline of 11.6 points, the only coverage move this month beyond normal variation. Top-three rate fell from 24.3% in July 2026 to 14.0% in October 2026, a decline of 10.3 points. Rank-one rate held comparatively steady, moving from 11.8% in July 2026 to 10.1% in October 2026. Coverage moved from 21.4% in September 2026 to 16.3% in October 2026, a decline of 5.1 points.

Category Leader: Kraut Law Group

Kraut Law Group became the category leader in October 2026 at 22.5% valid recommendation coverage, overtaking Spodek Law Group, which led the series from July 2026 through September 2026. Kraut Law Group's coverage has now risen in each of the last two months, from 14.4% in September 2026 to 22.5% in October 2026. Spodek Law Group remains the leader in top-three rate at 14.0% and rank-one rate at 10.1% in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement patterns varied in October 2026.

Kraut Law Group holds higher valid recommendation coverage than Spodek Law Group in October 2026, but trails it on both top-three and rank-one rates, illustrating how close coverage can still hide different first-position outcomes.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• What buyer-intent class covered all qualified observations in October 2026?
• Did the benchmark include Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison observations?

The qualified observations in October 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which captures discovery and consideration intent.

All qualified observations sat in one class in both months. The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Which firm led recommendation coverage in each measurement month?
• How have qualified observation counts and coverage leaders changed across the series?

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What information does each prompt-level observation retain?
• Does the presence of a source in an AI answer prove that it caused the recommendation?

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains received the most citations across AI platform responses?
• How concentrated are citations among the top cited domains?
• Which tracked brand domain appeared in the top 10 cited domains?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, 3,035 citations were observed spanning 1,063 unique domains.

Citations are moderately concentrated at the top, with google.com alone accounting for roughly one in five citations, while the remaining nine domains in the top 10 each hold between 1.1% and 3.8% share. The Cochran Firm's own domain (cochranfirm.com) appears at rank 4, making it the only tracked brand domain in the top 10. Legal directories (justia.com), general reference sources (en.wikipedia.org), social platforms (youtube.com, reddit.com), and individual law firm sites make up the remainder of the list.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands appear and are recommended across major AI and search surfaces, providing an industry-level view of AI-driven discovery.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Index
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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