When you are looking for a lawyer, an attorney referral service can be a great asset in your search.  Many of these services have a national or regional reach.  However, if you would prefer to use a local attorney referral service, there are several options open to you. 

One place to look would be with your local County Bar.  Many of these offer online attorney referral services.  For example, the San Francisco County Bar will send you attorney referrals within a day or two of filling out a simple online form giving information about your case.  The Los Angeles County Bar will provide an immediate referral based on your location and the area of law you are interested in.  However, you need to call them directly if you would like another referral.

There are also local private attorney referral services that you can use.  These can be a bit harder to find, but one way is to look at the American Bar Association’s (ABA) website, which lists a number of local attorney referral services (as well as many County Bars) by state.  Many of these smaller services are not web based, though, and require a phone call to get lawyer referrals.

If these local services do not satisfy your needs, you can still use the larger attorney referral services that have a longer reach and more resources at their disposal.  Either way, a large part of the work in finding a lawyer will be done for you. 

Other websites for local referral serves: