liv.asn.au APIwww.liv.asn.au ↗
Search the Law Institute of Victoria's lawyer referral directory. Get Victorian law firm names, addresses, phone, email, practice areas, and languages via 2 endpoints.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/5a69f77a-3525-4b07-82cf-e14fa167c268/search_lawyers' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search the LIV lawyer referral directory. Supports filtering by postcode, area of law category code, and firm name. Returns law firm details including contact information, practice areas, languages spoken, and accredited specialisations. Results are randomised by the upstream service.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| limit | integer | Maximum number of results to return. Must be between 1 and 500. |
| postcode | string | Australian postcode(s) to filter by. Supports comma-separated list for multiple postcodes (e.g. '3000' or '3000,3001,3002'). When omitted, no location filter is applied. |
| firm_name | string | Firm name or partial name to search for (e.g. 'Aitken'). Case-insensitive partial match. When omitted, no firm name filter is applied. |
| area_of_law | string | Area of law category code to filter by (e.g. 'CR' for Criminal Law, 'FA' for Family Law, 'PR' for Property Law). Use the list_areas_of_law endpoint to get available codes. When omitted, all areas are returned. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"results": "array of law firm objects",
"total_count": "integer"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"results": [
{
"id": "216140",
"email": "[email protected]",
"notes": "Agent for interstate and country firms, Can accept Legal Aid clients, Can offer online service, Can offer telephone service, Wheelchair access available",
"phone": "+1 (555) 012-3456",
"street": "Suite 1. Level 4, 224 Queen Street",
"suburb": "Melbourne",
"website": "http//:www.anguscameronpartners.com.au",
"postcode": "3000",
"firm_name": "Angus Cameron and Partners Pty Ltd",
"languages": "Spanish",
"contact_key": "831b6150-c977-46a0-aa81-b3360e29dd12",
"full_address": "Suite 1. Level 4 224 Queen Street Melbourne, 3000 Australia",
"referral_email": "[email protected]",
"referral_phone": "+1 (555) 012-3456",
"referral_contact": "John Doe",
"area_of_law_codes": "CR01,CR02,CR03,CR04,CR05,CR06,CR07,CR08,CR09,CR10,CR11,CR12,CR13,CR14,CR15,CR16,CR17,CR18,CR99,FA03,FA99",
"accredited_speciality": "Criminal Law"
}
],
"total_count": 33
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the liv.asn.au API
The LIV Find a Lawyer API exposes 2 endpoints for querying the Law Institute of Victoria's public referral directory, covering law firms across Victoria, Australia. The search_lawyers endpoint returns firm-level records with contact details, practice areas, accredited specialisations, and languages spoken, filterable by postcode, area of law category code, and firm name. A companion list_areas_of_law endpoint enumerates every category code accepted by the search filter.
What the API returns
The search_lawyers endpoint returns an array of law firm objects alongside a total_count integer. Each firm record can include the firm name, physical address, phone number, email address, website URL, practice areas, languages spoken by staff, and any accredited specialisations held by the firm. You can pass up to 500 results per call using the limit parameter, filter by one or more Australian postcodes (comma-separated), filter by a partial or full firm name, and narrow results to a specific area of law using a category code such as CR (Criminal Law), FA (Family Law), or PR (Property Law).
Area of law codes
Before searching, use list_areas_of_law to retrieve the full taxonomy. It returns an areas_of_law array where each element carries a category_code, category_name, and sub_category_name. Pass a category_code directly to the area_of_law parameter in search_lawyers to filter by that practice area. This endpoint takes no input parameters and reflects whatever categories the LIV directory currently recognises.
Coverage and behaviour
The directory covers law firms participating in the LIV Find Your Lawyer referral service in Victoria. Results from search_lawyers are randomised on each call — the same query run twice may return the same firms in a different order. Postcode filtering accepts a comma-separated string for multi-suburb searches (e.g. '3000,3001,3002'), making it straightforward to cover a geographic radius by supplying multiple codes. Firm name matching is case-insensitive and partial, so a query for 'Aitken' will match any firm whose name contains that string.
- Build a postcode-based lawyer finder that surfaces local Victorian firms with phone and email contact details.
- Populate a legal directory app with practice area taxonomy from
list_areas_of_lawfor guided search navigation. - Cross-reference LIV accredited specialisations against firm names to identify specialists in a given field.
- Filter firms by language spoken to match clients with non-English-speaking-background legal services.
- Aggregate firm website URLs for a Victorian legal sector research dataset.
- Monitor which firms appear under a specific area of law category across multiple Victorian postcodes.
- Verify a law firm's LIV directory listing, address, and contact details programmatically.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does the Law Institute of Victoria publish an official developer API for this directory?+
What does `search_lawyers` return, and how do filters interact?+
total_count. The postcode, area_of_law, and firm_name parameters are all optional and can be combined in a single request. Omitting firm_name applies no name filter; passing a partial string matches any firm whose name contains it. Results are randomised per call, so repeated identical queries may return firms in a different order.Is individual solicitor-level data (e.g. individual lawyer profiles, bar numbers) included?+
Does the API cover law firms outside Victoria or outside the LIV referral service?+
How should I discover valid `area_of_law` category codes before searching?+
list_areas_of_law first. It returns the complete set of category_code values (e.g. CR, FA, PR) along with their human-readable category_name and sub_category_name. Use those codes directly as the area_of_law parameter in search_lawyers. Passing an unrecognised code will not match any results.