Real issues from real users. If your problem isn’t here, email support@fasterthemes.com with as much detail as you can — version numbers, error messages, screenshots, and steps to reproduce.
Theme & layout issues
The Firm Home page shows a blog instead of the firm template
The page exists but isn’t using the Firm template, or the static front page setting wasn’t applied. Two checks:
- Is the page template set? Edit the page → look in the right sidebar for the Template dropdown → confirm it’s set to Firm Home.
- Is it set as the static front page? Settings → Reading → “Your homepage displays” should be A static page, with the Firm Home page selected.
The site shows the WordPress fallback theme (Twenty Twenty-Four etc.)
Legal isn’t activated, or the upload failed. Go to Appearance → Themes. If Legal isn’t in the list, re-upload the zip. If Legal is in the list but inactive, click Activate.
If Legal appears with a “Broken theme” warning, the upload was incomplete. Re-download from fasterthemes.com and upload again.
Practice tiles, counsel cards, or ledger are missing
Each section has a “Show” toggle in the Customizer, defaulting to on. Verify:
- Customizer → Practice → Show Practice is checked
- Customizer → Counsel → Show Counsel is checked
- Customizer → Ledger → Show Ledger is checked
For the Ledger, the section also requires recent published blog posts to populate. If your site has no posts yet, the Ledger will show but be empty.
The hero pull-quote area is missing on mobile
Intentional. Below 768px the hero collapses to a single column; the pull-quote and stats move below the main heading rather than alongside. Confirm by resizing your desktop browser.
Fonts & CSS issues
Fonts look wrong / system serif instead of Fraunces
Google Fonts are blocked by the user’s browser, an ad-blocker, or a server-side request filter. Test in an incognito window with extensions disabled.
If the issue is consistent across browsers, your hosting may be blocking outbound requests to fonts.googleapis.com. Some privacy-focused hosts do this. Switch to self-hosted fonts via a plugin like OMGF if you can’t unblock the request.
Custom CSS isn’t taking effect
Three things to check:
- Did you save? The Customizer’s “Additional CSS” panel needs an explicit Publish to apply changes.
- Are you targeting the right selector? Use browser DevTools (right-click → Inspect) to confirm the CSS rule appears in the cascade and isn’t being overridden by a more-specific rule.
- Cache? If you have a caching plugin or CDN, purge the cache. Custom CSS lives in
wp_options, not in a CSS file, so plugins that minify CSS sometimes miss it.
Layout breaks at certain screen widths
Most often caused by a long unbroken string in a customizer field — a URL, an email address, or a long word — overflowing its container. The fix is to add word-break: break-word via Custom CSS:
.lg-hero-sub, .lg-counsel-card p, .lg-practice-tile p {
word-break: break-word;
}License & updates issues
License activation says “Invalid response from license server”
The plugin can’t reach fasterthemes.com. Possible causes:
- Outbound HTTPS blocked — ask your host to whitelist fasterthemes.com
- SSL certificate issue — older PHP installations sometimes have outdated CA bundles. Upgrade to PHP 8.x
- Firewall plugin (e.g., Wordfence) blocking the request — temporarily disable, retry activation, re-enable
License is active but Pro features aren’t applying
Cache. Either WordPress’s transient cache or a caching plugin is serving an older “license inactive” state. Steps:
- Go to Appearance → Legal Pro License. If status shows “Active”, proceed.
- Purge any caching plugin’s cache.
- Hard-refresh your browser (Cmd-Shift-R / Ctrl-F5).
If features still don’t appear, deactivate Legal Pro then reactivate. The plugin re-runs its activation hooks, which clears any cached state.
Plugin updates aren’t appearing under WordPress’s update notices
Update checks run twice daily by default. To force a check, visit Dashboard → Updates and click Check Again. Then go to Plugins — Legal Pro should now show an update notice if one is available.
If no notice appears even after forcing a check, your license has likely deactivated. See License & Updates.
Demo importer issues
Demo import button is missing
The button only appears when Pro license is active. See License is active but Pro features aren’t applying above.
Demo import succeeds but featured images are missing
The importer downloads images from picsum.photos. If your server can’t reach external HTTPS, the download silently fails — posts are created but without thumbnails.
Confirm by visiting https://picsum.photos/seed/test/1600/900 from your browser. If it loads, the issue is server-side outbound connectivity. Ask your host to verify external HTTPS works.
You can manually add featured images to the demo posts via Posts → All Posts → edit → Set Featured Image, after the import.
Demo import fails with “An error occurred”
Usually a memory or execution-time limit. The importer downloads 5 images and creates ~10 posts/pages — modest, but on small shared hosts the cumulative work can hit limits. Increase PHP memory to 256MB and max_execution_time to 60s. Ask your host how — it’s usually a one-line config change.
Performance issues
Site feels slow
Legal itself is lean (~25KB CSS, ~5KB JS). Slowness is almost always caused by:
- Other plugins — try deactivating non-essential plugins to identify the culprit. Page builders, social-feed plugins, and analytics plugins are common offenders.
- Hosting — shared hosts under load can be much slower than the same site on a $5 VPS. If your site averages above 1.5s TTFB consistently, the host is the bottleneck.
- Image-heavy hero — if you’ve replaced the default placeholder hero with a 4MB unoptimized JPEG, that’s the issue. Compress to under 200KB and serve as WebP.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is high
Usually caused by web fonts loading after the page renders. Add display=swap to your font URL (Legal does this by default, so this only affects custom font setups).
If CLS is very high (>0.25), check your hero image for a missing width and height attribute. Pre-set dimensions prevent reflow when images load.
Compatibility issues
Conflict with another plugin
Standard troubleshooting:
- Deactivate all other plugins except Legal Pro.
- Test if the issue is gone.
- If yes, reactivate plugins one at a time, retesting between each, until the conflict surfaces.
- Email support with the name of the conflicting plugin and we’ll either fix Legal Pro or guide you on what to do.
Theme update broke something
Try this in order:
- Clear all caches (browser, plugin caches, server cache, CDN).
- Switch to a default theme (Twenty Twenty-Four), then back to Legal. This clears stale customizer state.
- Deactivate Legal Pro, then reactivate.
If still broken, email support with: theme version, Pro version, list of active plugins, and the specific symptom.