Top Portal Placement by Ad Spend... Legal Regulation to Curb Lawyer Search Practices

Move to Grant Legal Force to Ministry of Justice Guidelines

As concerns continue to be raised about the lack of compliance with the "Guidelines for Operating Lawyer Search Services" established by the Ministry of Justice, legislative efforts to incorporate the guidelines into law—thereby granting them legal force—are gaining momentum.

According to a report by The Law Times, Park Ji-won, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, sponsored a partial amendment to the Attorney-at-Law Act on April 10, reflecting the core contents of the guidelines.

The main point of the amendment is to newly include "online legal platforms" and "internet media designated by presidential decree" as legal channels for lawyer advertising. The purpose is to improve public access to legal services and to strengthen the right to legal assistance from lawyers.

The Ministry of Justice had established operational standards for lawyer search services in May 2025, aiming to limit unfair advertising on lawyer platforms and enhance consumer protection. However, major portals such as Naver interpreted these standards as recommendations rather than requirements and continued to maintain their existing practices. Provisions in the guidelines—such as the prohibition of sorting by advertising expenditure and the requirement to strengthen disclosures about advertising in search results—have not been implemented for nearly a year.

The Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and other relevant ministries made several requests for compliance to major portal operators, yet no significant changes have been observed. The issue was also pointed out during the National Assembly's parliamentary audit in 2025, but since the guidelines are only "soft norms" without legal force, they have not led to substantial improvements.

Han-kyu Kim (Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 31), a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated during the National Assembly's audit of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups by the Industry, Trade, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee on October 14, 2025, "Following the announcement of the Ministry of Justice guidelines, other legal-tech startups paid penalties and withdrew their advertising methods, but Naver continues to provide differential exposure based on advertising expenditure."

According to the guidelines, the results of lawyer search services must be sorted based on "random or other fair and reasonable criteria," and these criteria must be made public to users. While it is permissible to give priority exposure to paid members over free members, it is not allowed to sort paid members based on advertising expenditure or consultation fees. In particular, advertising methods that determine the exposure ranking of lawyers by auctioning specific keywords and ranking them by bid price—known as the Cost Per Click (CPC) model—are explicitly prohibited.

However, major portal operators are still maintaining the CPC model. If a law firm pays an advertising fee, it is charged each time a user clicks the ad. The larger the advertising budget, the higher the exposure in the search results. For example, when searching keywords such as "DUI lawyer" or "defamation lawyer," regardless of the actual search results, law firms that spend more on advertising are placed at the top.

The guidelines stipulate that "if the search ranking and exposure method vary depending on whether advertising fees are paid, this must be indicated on every search results screen, and a one-time notice on the initial screen is insufficient." However, this is also not being properly followed.

In explaining the rationale for the bill, Assemblyman Park stated, "Recently, new forms of online platforms such as applications have proliferated, but it has been pointed out that the current law does not clearly regulate them. Some businesses are not complying with the guidelines and continue to maintain excessive advertising fee-based exposure practices, raising concerns about harm to legal consumers and market distortion."

He further explained, "The goal is to clearly define the relevant standards in law to establish the public nature of the attorney system and ensure a fair order for case assignments, as well as to restore trust in legal services."

Kim Ji-hyun, The Law Times Reporter

Woo Bin, The Law Times Reporter

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.