Lawyer, notary or accountant website in Montréal

At 9 p.m., someone searches "notary appointment Montréal" on his phone. He opens three firms. The first still shows a 2014 site, with no hours and no fees. The second explains the transaction, gives a fee range and offers a time slot. He calls the second, never knowing the first had twenty years of experience.

This guide is for law, notary and accounting firms in Greater Montréal. It covers what the site has to do, what the codes of ethics prohibit or regulate, what 306 local listings analysed in June 2026 show, and what a site costs. It is not legal advice: your order is the authority, and the articles are cited so you can read them.

What a firm's site must do

Job	Feature	Why
Name the client's problem	One page per practice area, in the client's words	Nobody searches "security law"; they search "my tenant is not paying".
Place the firm	Address, hours, languages spoken, how consultations work	A neighbourhood firm lives on proximity.
Give a price signal	A range or a billing method, with the limits	It is the first question, and the worst served.
Show the people	Name, title, practice area, permit number where required	Trust attaches to a person, not a logo.
Allow first contact	A short form or a phone number, with a stated response time	A firm that does not answer within 48 hours loses the mandate.
Publish what people search	Articles or FAQ pages	This is what makes the firm findable on Google.

Open your site in a private window and look for the price of a simple transaction. If you find neither a range nor a billing method, that is your first fix.

What your order allows

All three professions share one rule: advertising cannot be false, misleading or incomplete. The rest varies, and many firms copy the site of a firm in another profession.

Profession	Testimonials	Fees	Records
Lawyers	Prohibited in advertising (s. 145)	Must state the nature and extent of the services and whether disbursements and taxes are extra (s. 146 and 147); held for 90 days (s. 148)	Full copy of the advertising kept for 12 months (s. 149)
Notaries	Prohibited, except awards and honours (s. 70)	Understandable to a non-lawyer, services included and taxes stated, held at least 60 days (s. 71); service comes before price (s. 72)	Partners are responsible for the advertising (s. 73)
CPAs	No explicit prohibition in the sections consulted: advertising must be truthful and complete (s. 91)	Nature and extent of services, additional services and additional fees, held for 90 days (s. 93)	36 months: copy, medium, publication and removal dates (s. 94)

Three consequences for how the site is built.

Client reviews do not go on it. A widget showing your Google reviews on your site is advertising under the code. For a lawyer or a notary, the testimonial section applies. Reviews left on Google by clients are not yours to control, but featuring them on your site is.

Superlatives need proof. "The best real estate firm" is a particular quality: a lawyer may only claim it if able to justify it (s. 10), and so may a notary (s. 69). "20 years in real estate law" is verifiable; "the fastest" is not.

Published fees are binding. A published range must stay in force for 60 days for notaries, 90 days for lawyers and CPAs. A "from" price without included services or taxes is incomplete under all three codes.

What the site can do without risk: explain the steps of a transaction, the documents to bring, the usual timelines, the questions to ask before signing. That is useful content, and it is exactly what a client looks for before calling.

Client data

A first-contact form collects a name, a legal problem, sometimes documents. That information is protected by professional secrecy and by Law 25. Three concrete requirements:

• a privacy notice before the form is submitted, not in the footer;
• explicit consent if the form asks for sensitive information, and no pre-ticked box;
• limited access: the form should not land in a mailbox shared by the whole firm.

The common trap: a third-party chat widget installed "so we don't miss anything". The conversation can contain confidential information, and it passes through a server you do not control. If you use one, document it in the policy and check where the data is stored. The detail is in the Law 25 guide.

French comes next: a firm's site must offer a complete French version, form included. That is the subject of the Law 96 guide.

What 306 local listings show

In June 2026 I pulled 306 Google Maps listings through the Places API for notaries, lawyers and accountants in Montréal, Laval, Longueuil, Brossard, Repentigny and Pointe-Claire, then analysed each site's homepage.

• 25% (75 listings) had no website, or only a social profile. That is the highest rate of the six sectors surveyed.
• Of the 231 sites, 108 ran WordPress and 37 ran Wix, Squarespace or GoDaddy.
• The median mobile PageSpeed score was 64, the best of the six sectors; 17% scored under 50.
• An analytics tag was present on 59% of sites.
• The median listing had 18 Google reviews.

The contrast is sharp: firms have faster sites than average, but one in four has none. And reviews are scarce, which means the decision is made on what the site explains, not on an aggregate score.

The limits: the Places search returns what Google ranks, not every firm in those cities. One PageSpeed run per site. A tag on the page does not prove it is configured correctly. No firm from the scan is named.

What it costs

My prices are public on the pricing page, before tax:

• Landing site, CA$3,500: practice areas, team, fees or billing method, first-contact form, French and English.
• Custom site, CA$5,500: if your team publishes articles and edits pages itself without a developer.
• Add-ons: consultation booking CA$900, blog CA$600, extra page CA$250, third language CA$800, migration CA$700.
• Care: CA$150 a month on the landing tier.

A firm does not need a CA$15,000 site. It needs one that explains three practice areas, introduces four people and answers in French. The CA$3,500 plan covers that. A blog makes sense if you target specific searches, for example "cooling-off period home purchase": that is where content attracts clients who do not know you.

Market ranges are in the guide to website costs in Montréal.

Audit your current site

• No client testimonials on the site, or written confirmation from your order.
• No superlative you cannot document.
• Published fees state included services, disbursements and taxes.
• The stated validity period for prices is respected.
• Every professional is presented with the exact title and permit number where required.
• The form shows a privacy notice before submission.
• The site exists in French, form included.
• The homepage scores 50 or more on PageSpeed Insights, mobile.

If you want an outside read, book a 15-minute call. I will tell you what is a design issue, what is an ethics issue, and what your order needs to review.

Sources

Pages read on 22 October 2026.

• Code of ethics of lawyers (B-1, r. 3.1), sections 10 and 145 to 150
• Code of ethics of notaries (N-3, r. 2), sections 68 to 73
• What I need to know before advertising, Ordre des CPA du Québec, sections 90 to 94
• Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (P-39.1), LégisQuébec
• Language of commerce and business: your rights, Office québécois de la langue française