On 10 June 2025, the Family Law Amendment Act 2024 came into effect. For family law firms, it created one of the most significant search opportunities in years. Hundreds of thousands of Australians in existing or pending family law matters suddenly had new questions. The firms with current, clearly written content on the changes captured that traffic. Most firms did not.
More than twelve months later, that gap is still open. Here is what the search data shows and what the firms at the top are doing differently.
The amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 introduced several structural changes that altered how Australians understand and search for family law information. The most searched-for changes include:
Each of these generated a wave of specific questions that Australians typed into ChatGPT and Google AI before contacting any firm. The question "who gets the dog in a divorce Australia" alone generated substantial search volume spike in the weeks after the changes took effect.
When we ran the top 2025 law change queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, a clear pattern emerged. The firms appearing most frequently are not necessarily the largest or most well-known firms in their markets. They share four structural characteristics:
AI systems weight recency. A property settlement page last updated in 2023 - even a well-written one - will be outranked for 2025-change queries by a newer page that directly addresses the amendments. Firms that published "what the 2025 family law changes mean for your property settlement" within two months of June 2025 are still benefiting from that first-mover advantage twelve months later.
FAQ schema tells AI systems exactly what questions a page answers. The firms appearing most often in AI answers for the 2025 change queries have FAQPage structured data that maps directly to the queries being searched: "what is the four-step process," "how does financial abuse affect property settlement now," "has the best interests test changed." Without schema, well-written pages are still visible to AI but not cited as authoritative answers to specific questions.
ChatGPT and Google AI pull from Google Business Profiles when making local firm recommendations. Firms with recent GBP posts referencing the 2025 changes, reviews that mention the new property settlement process, and practice area descriptions that include the updated legislative framework are appearing consistently. Firms with unchanged GBP profiles from 2024 are not.
Law.com.au, LegalVision, Lawyers.com.au, Justia, and FindLaw are the directories most frequently cited as sources by AI platforms in family law queries. Firms with current, complete listings in these directories - particularly listings that include specialisation in the 2025 change areas - are being referenced as part of the AI's sourcing.
The 2025 changes gave every Australian family law firm a rare content opportunity: a moment when demand for specific legal information suddenly spiked and most of the existing content was suddenly outdated. The firms that moved quickly are still benefiting. The ones that did not are still waiting.
Twelve months after the changes took effect, there is still significant AI search volume for 2025 family law change queries. Many of the high-volume search terms are still underserved - fewer than 15% of Australian family law firm websites have content that directly and clearly addresses the four-step property settlement process using the new legislative language.
But the window is not permanent. Firms that build this content now will be in position for the next two to three years of queries as Australians continue to work through matters under the new regime. Firms that wait another six months will be competing against an established field of AI-cited sources.
Open ChatGPT and type: "What is the four-step property settlement process under Australian family law?" and "How do the 2025 family law changes affect property settlement?" Note which firms appear in the answers. Note how those firms are described. Note whether your firm appears and, if so, what is said about it.
Then check your own website. Does your property settlement page reference the 2025 changes? Does it have FAQ schema? When was it last updated? When did you last post to your Google Business Profile?
That five-minute audit will show you exactly what the gap is and whether you are currently capturing any of the search surge the 2025 changes created.
We run a free AI visibility audit that shows your citation score for the top 2025 change queries, which competitors are appearing ahead of you, and the specific gaps to fix.
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