Editorial methodology
How we know what we publish, and how we mark what we don't
LawLegiance documents legal systems. That is only useful if you can tell a researched statement from a placeholder, so every record carries a verification tier and a source trail.
Sourcing
We work down from the instrument, not up from the commentary
Most legal misinformation online is a summary of a summary. Our researchers are required to reach the highest available tier below for every substantive claim, and to cite the tier they actually used.
- 01
Primary instruments
Constitutions, statutes, codes, statutory instruments and gazette notices, read in the official language where we have the capacity to do so.
- 02
Court decisions
Reported judgments from the court that issued them, preferred over any summary of them. We cite the judgment, not the headnote.
- 03
Official state publications
Ministry and regulator guidance, court practice directions, published fee schedules and official forms.
- 04
Institutional secondary sources
Bar associations, law commissions and intergovernmental bodies — used to orient research, never as the sole authority for a claim.
Verification standard
Four tiers, shown on every record
The badge on a court, jurisdiction or procedure page tells you how much work stands behind it. Nothing in the atlas is unlabelled, and we would rather publish an honest Indexed record than a confident-looking guess.
A legal researcher has checked every claim against the primary instrument and recorded a review date.
How to treat it: Safe to use as a starting point for real work, then verify the specific provision you rely on.
Every claim carries a citation to an official source, but no researcher has re-read the whole record end to end.
How to treat it: Follow the citation before relying on any single statement.
Structural data only — the jurisdiction exists in the atlas with its legal family and basic facts, and nothing more has been researched.
How to treat it: Treat as a signpost. Do not rely on it for substance.
Illustrative content written to show what a finished record looks like. It is plausible, not verified.
How to treat it: Do not rely on it at all. We label it rather than hide it.
Coverage ledger
Where the atlas actually stands today
Counted live from the database when you loaded this page — 4462 records carry a verification tier. We publish this because a coverage claim you cannot audit is marketing.
| Record type | Reviewed | Sourced | Indexed | Demonstration | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction profiles | 178 | — | — | — | 195 |
| Jurisdiction sections | 1068 | — | — | — | 1170 |
| Courts | 498 | — | — | — | 532 |
| Government bodies | 697 | — | — | — | 697 |
| Topic treatments | 1637 | — | — | — | 1825 |
| Procedures | 35 | — | — | — | 35 |
| Forms | 6 | — | — | — | 8 |
| All records | 4119 | — | — | — | 4462 |
Read this honestly: the great majority of jurisdiction profiles are Indexed — present in the atlas with their legal family and basic facts, but not yet researched in depth. Deep coverage exists for a small set of jurisdictions. Browse the directory to see which.
Limits
What we will not tell you
We do not give legal advice
Nothing on LawLegiance is advice, and reading it creates no lawyer-client relationship. We describe what a rule says; we cannot tell you how it applies to your facts.
We do not promise currency
Law changes faster than any atlas. A review date tells you when a record was last checked, not that it is correct today. Always confirm against the source before acting.
We do not recommend lawyers
We document institutions, including bar associations and regulators. We take no referral fees and rank no firms.
How corrections work
Anyone can report an error on any record. A correction is checked against the primary source before it changes anything, and we would rather hear about a problem than protect a published page. Reports that cite a source get handled first.