How we verify the law

Official primary sources only

A value is published as verified only when confirmed on an official source: the state legislature's statute database, the official administrative code, or an official state DMV / DPS / State Police page. Aggregator and tint-shop sites are never a source of record; at most they provide leads that we then confirm or refute against the statute.

The four ways a page gets confirmed

When a page gives a figure, that figure is confirmed against one of four primary sources, and the page shows which one it used.

The official state statute. The main path. The figure is read straight from the state legislature's own statute text.

A disclosed mirror. When the official site blocks automated reading or does not post the text, we confirm the same code on a public mirror, Cornell LII or Justia. The page always says on its face that a mirror was used.

A controlling federal statute. When the number is set by federal law, such as the wage-garnishment floor in 15 U.S.C. §1673, the page cites that federal rule.

Controlling case law. When the rule comes from a court decision rather than a statute, the page names the case, and we still read the state code for any provision that would override it.

Every page wears its tier

None of this is hidden. Every state page carries a badge under its answer that names which of these sources confirmed it, Official statute, Disclosed mirror, Case law, Federal law, or Law is silent, or an amber Cited badge when word-for-word confirmation is still pending. Each badge links back to this method, so a reader can check how a figure was verified instead of taking "confirmed" on faith.

Never a commercial aggregator

A source of record is official, or a disclosed neutral mirror of the official text (Cornell LII, Justia, or an official court reporter). Commercial aggregator sites are never a source of record. They are prone to stale numbers and even misattributed cases, which is the whole reason this site exists. When an older page is found leaning on one, it is downgraded to the Cited tier and re-sourced against the primary law. If you spot one, the contact page is the way to flag it.

Every fact carries its citation

Each figure on a state page stores its exact statute citation (down to the subsection), the official URL, the date it was last reviewed, and a verified flag, and shows the citation next to the fact.

We never invent a number

Where the code chapter was read and no provision sets the figure, the page says the law is silent on that point and shows the chapter it was read against. We do not borrow a plausible number from a secondary site.

Cited pages say so

A page whose figure is cited to its source but not yet matched word-for-word against the statute text shows a visible "Cited" label: amber, with no review date, plainly distinct from the green "Confirmed" tier. We match each figure against the fetched statute text with tooling that looks for the number in the source. When the number is not found in the text, the page stays Cited until a person reads the source and confirms it, and any figure that conflicts with the statute goes to a review queue before the page changes.

Corrections

If you find an error, use the contact page; include the state and the statute. Corrections are re-verified against the primary source and the review date is updated.