A popular clickbait tactic is to claim to debunk some commonly held belief. How else would one explain those advertisements in which a “gut doctor” (please, they prefer to be called gastroenterologists) encourages readers to avoid a certain vegetable other than that it flies in the face of the nearly universal belief that eating vegetables is good for one’s health?
Even in the pre-clickbait and pre-podcast days, the Freakonomics franchise was in the business was in the business of making readers question what they thought they knew about economics. People love to find out secret or hard-to-find information, if only because being the first to know it makes them feel smart, but promising to clear up misconceptions is an especially effective click-seeking technique when the misunderstanding at hand could be stopping the reader from gaining some advantage. Debunking myths about laws related to your practice area can yield eminently clickable and shareable blog posts for your law firm’s website, especially because so many important legal concepts are poorly understood by everyone except lawyers.
Your Legal Blog vs. Conventional Wisdom
You can tell what people frequently misunderstand about the law by analyzing Google search trends with analytics software. It is worthwhile to see which queries people enter with regard to your practice area, especially with yes-and-no questions. Queries like “will my ex take half,” “is pain and suffering 3 times the medical bills,” and “do you have to serve 80% of your sentence before parole” are blog post gold. Here are some more ideas to get you started:
· Marijuana Decriminalization – Marijuana laws vary greatly among states. If your city issues citations instead of misdemeanor charges for simple possession, say so. Likewise, write a post about what you can and can’t do with a medical cannabis card.
· Equitable Distribution- In divorce law, division of property is often a fraught subject. Start by informing your readers that “equitable” means “fair,” not “equal.”
· Dram Shop Liability- Different states have different, and often misunderstood, laws about when a bar can be sued for premises liability if someone caused a DUI crash after drinking at the bar.
· Do Not Blow- Refusing a breathalyzer test doesn’t automatically make you innocent or guilty. Explain the legal consequences in your state for refusing a breathalyzer test or other field sobriety test.
· General Damages Multiplier- How courts decide how much money to award for pain and suffering is a mystery to everyone except personal injury lawyers.
· Statute of Limitations- Even in the same state, the statute of limitations varies widely from one kind of legal action to another, as does the start date from which the statute of limitations clock starts counting down.
Contact Legal Content Writers
If writing listicles doesn’t seem like the best way to use your time and legal expertise, leave the task to professional legal content writers. You can count on Law Blog Writers to create blog content that will dispel myths about the law and make prospective clients want to find out more from you.