Editorial Standards
Short answer: Substantive legal claims are checked against primary authority — the U.S. Code, Supreme Court opinions, federal court forms, and Bureau of Prisons or Federal Register material — before publication, not after. Where the law is unsettled or a deadline may already have passed, this site says so plainly rather than softening it.
Claims are grounded in the most authoritative available source, in this order:
| Subject | Source used |
|---|---|
| Statutes | U.S. Code (Office of the Law Revision Counsel) |
| Supreme Court decisions | The opinion text itself, including the specific holding relied on |
| Federal court forms | uscourts.gov official forms, linked to source |
| BOP policy | Bureau of Prisons or the Federal Register |
| Sentencing policy | U.S. Sentencing Commission |
Every core article ends with a Primary authority block listing the statutes and decisions the article actually rests on, each linked to the official source so you can read the law yourself rather than relying on our description of it. Statutes link to the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel; Supreme Court decisions issued too recently to have a U.S. Reports page link to the Court's own slip opinion; reported decisions link to the full opinion text.
The block is curated, not exhaustive. It lists controlling authority, not every case an article mentions in passing. An automated check runs against the site and fails the build if any core article lacks a primary authority, or cites something other than an approved primary source — so the standard cannot quietly lapse as articles are added.
If a citation here does not match what you find at the official source, that is an error and we want to know. See corrections.
Articles are written by Charles Christopher, a paralegal employed by Prisoner Legal Aid LLC. A paralegal is not an attorney; this site does not provide legal advice or representation, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship.
Paralegal document preparation is performed under the oversight of a licensed attorney; the client remains self-represented.
Each article shows its publication date. A “last reviewed” date appears only when the article has been substantively revised — for example because the law changed. Dates are not refreshed cosmetically to make old content appear current.
If something here is wrong, it gets fixed and the review date updated. Legal errors in this subject area can cost someone a filing deadline, so corrections are treated as urgent rather than cosmetic. Report an error to info@prisonerlegalaid.com.
