Update Methodology
Legal content goes stale fast. This page describes how often each content type on Federal & State Law is reviewed, what triggers a re-check, and what the "as of [date]" stamp on each page actually means.
Editorial cadence is not a guarantee of currency. Even daily review cannot keep up with every legislative session, every court decision, and every agency rulemaking across 50 states and the federal system. Before relying on any legal information for an important decision, verify the current law with the canonical official source and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.
Review cadence by content type
Federal statutes (U.S.C. titles)
- Review cadence
- Within 48 hours of new Public Law affecting the title
- Trigger
- GovInfo Public Law publication; eCFR amendment ingestion
- What "as of" means
- The Public Law cut-off through which our editorial summary has been checked. We surface the cut-off Public Law number on each statute page.
Federal regulations (C.F.R. titles)
- Review cadence
- Weekly editorial cross-check against eCFR
- Trigger
- eCFR amendment publication; Federal Register final-rule ingestion
- What "as of" means
- The eCFR edition date through which the section has been checked. Surfaced as 'eCFR last verified: [date]' on each regulation page.
Federal Register (proposed + final rules)
- Review cadence
- Daily ingestion
- Trigger
- Federal Register API
- What "as of" means
- Publication date in the Federal Register.
Federal court opinions (SCOTUS, circuits, district)
- Review cadence
- Weekly for new opinions; cited-by re-check quarterly
- Trigger
- Free Law Project / CourtListener API
- What "as of" means
- The opinion's own decision date; our editorial summary's 'lastReviewed' is the date of our most recent editorial check.
State statutes
- Review cadence
- Quarterly per legislative session; ad-hoc for major enactments
- Trigger
- State legislature session-law publication
- What "as of" means
- The session law cut-off through which our editorial summary has been checked. Surfaced per state.
Comparison tables (state-by-state)
- Review cadence
- Quarterly
- Trigger
- Per-state legislative-session change; major court decisions affecting a row
- What "as of" means
- Each cell carries its own citation; the table-level 'last reviewed' date is the most recent date we ran a full per-cell editorial check.
Q&A entries
- Review cadence
- Quarterly accuracy audit; continuous additions
- Trigger
- Editorial team review queue; correction reports submitted through /corrections-policy
- What "as of" means
- The 'lastReviewed' date stamped on each Q&A is the date a human editor most recently confirmed the answer reflects current law.
Practice guides
- Review cadence
- Monthly
- Trigger
- Editorial review queue; user-submitted corrections
- What "as of" means
- Date of most recent editorial review.
Legal forms (state-by-state)
- Review cadence
- Quarterly per state; immediately when a state court reissues the canonical form we link to
- Trigger
- State court form re-issuance; reader-reported broken official-source link
- What "as of" means
- Date of most recent editorial check that the canonical state-court form link is current.
Calculators / tools
- Review cadence
- Quarterly for thresholds and statutory references; annually for full methodology
- Trigger
- Statutory threshold change (e.g., federal minimum wage, federal poverty guideline updates, state guideline tables)
- What "as of" means
- Each tool displays 'data as of [date]' inline; results are always estimates and never substitute for legal advice. See per-tool methodology link.
Glossary
- Review cadence
- Continuous additions; annual full review
- Trigger
- Editorial team curation; cross-link drift detection
- What "as of" means
- Date of most recent editorial review for the term.
Bills (federal and state, where tracked)
- Review cadence
- Daily during active session
- Trigger
- Congress.gov / state-legislature status changes
- What "as of" means
- Bill status timestamp from the upstream tracker.
Three different freshness signals
- Last reviewed. The date a human editor last confirmed the page accurately reflects current law. This is the most common freshness signal across the site.
- Last checked against official source. Where applicable, the date we last ran a programmatic check against the upstream canonical (e.g., eCFR section text, official state-court form URL).
- Data as of. For calculators and tools, the cut-off date of the underlying threshold, schedule, or guideline table the tool uses.
When we flag content stale
We flag content for review whenever any of the following is true:
- The last review date exceeds twice the content type's review cadence (e.g., a Q&A older than six months for a quarterly cadence).
- An upstream signal indicates change — a Public Law affecting cited statutes, an eCFR amendment to a cited regulation, or a state-legislature session-law publication in a state the page references.
- A reader submits a correction or error report via corrections policy.
- Cross-link integrity check detects a broken canonical-source URL.