Editorial Standards

Guide types

Every guide is labelled and the label is accurate: Explainer (what the rule is), How-to (what to do, in order), Walkthrough (what happens at an appointment, hearing or inspection), Analysis (where the law is split or moving), and Warning (where people are commonly harmed).

Accuracy rules

• No invented statutes, ordinances, cases, form numbers, deadlines, standards, statistics or agency positions.
• No stated figure for anything that changes, and on this site that is nearly every figure.
• No processing times. Every office differs and publishes its own.
• The layer of government is named in every guide — federal, state, county or city.
• A named place is always a labelled example, never the rule.
• Cases are described by name, year and holding, never quoted at length.
• Where a rule is genuinely contested or in litigation, the guide says so instead of picking the tidier answer.

The short answer is a standard, not a style

Each guide's opening sentence must actually answer the question in the title, without hedging it into meaninglessness. "It depends" is not an answer; "it depends on whether your city treats the citation as civil or criminal, and here is how to tell" is.

What we will not do

No personalized advice. No statement that a particular reader qualifies for something. No prediction of an outcome. No recommendation of a named lawyer in exchange for anything. No guide written to rank rather than to help, and no guide that exists only to carry a link.

Commercial relationships

Some immigration guides carry a single link to an outside immigration law firm, placed only where that firm's practice area is genuinely relevant, never in navigation, callouts or boilerplate, and never more than once in a guide. Any commercial relationship behind such a link is disclosed rather than hidden, and the link never changes what a guide says. No advertiser sees or approves content before publication.

There is no advertising network here, no affiliate scheme, no sponsored guides, and no paid placement in any listing.

Updating

When a rule changes we revise the existing guide rather than publishing a rival beside it. Where the change could harm someone relying on the old version, the guide carries a visible note in the text saying what changed and when it takes effect.

Automated tools

Drafting and editing tools are used in production. They do not replace source verification: every legal proposition is checked against the primary source cited beside it, and anything unverifiable is removed rather than softened.