How We Research and Check Our Pages

1. One figure, one source you can open

A deadline, deposit cap or penalty is published only after it has been read in the statute itself. The state pages name the provision they were checked against, and link to the official text wherever the legislature publishes it online, so you can read the same paragraph we did. Where a statute is amended, we work from the amended text rather than from a description of the amendment.

Secondary material — law-firm blogs, commercial summaries, news coverage — is used only to cross-check a figure that came from a primary source. It is never the only basis for a number on a page.

2. Both branches, when the statute has two

Some rules depend on what the landlord actually did: whether a written itemisation of deductions was provided, whether the deadline runs from move-out or from the date a statement was sent, which of two procedures the landlord chose. Where the statute sets different deadlines or different consequences for those branches, the page gives both and says which facts select one over the other.

A single tidy number is easier to publish and easier to remember. It is also wrong for the reader whose facts fall in the other branch, which is why we do not collapse the branches into one.

3. Filing fees are ranges, not single numbers

Small-claims filing fees usually move with the amount claimed, and in many states they also vary by county. A single figure would be wrong somewhere, so the pages give the range a tenant is most likely to be charged and name what moves it — the amount claimed, the number of claims filed in the past year, or the county.

4. Every guide page shows its review date

Each guide page carries the date it was last reviewed, and that date moves when the figures are re-checked. State pages carry a second label drawn from the same date: within 180 days the facts are shown as verified; older than that, the page says a re-check is due; past 365 days it is marked overdue for re-verification.

A label that reads “overdue” means we have not finished re-checking that page. We show it rather than quietly reset the date, because a date that is always fresh tells the reader nothing.

5. Drafts are prepared with software assistance

Drafts are prepared with software assistance. That changes how quickly a draft is produced; it does not change the standard above. A deadline, cap or penalty is published only after it has been read in a primary source, every guide page carries a review date, and a correction is made once in the data that both the free pages and the paid guide read — so a corrected figure reaches both at the same time.

6. What we do not do

• We do not give legal advice, or tell you whether you have a case.
• We do not evaluate your situation or predict an outcome.
• We do not fill in or generate documents. The demand-letter template in the guide is blank on purpose — you fill it in yourself.
• We are not paid to place a company in a guide. Partner links are marked and do not change what a page says.
• We do not claim a legal qualification, an attorney review, or any approval by a court or a bar association. None of those exists behind this site.

7. Corrections

Email support@get-book.com with the page and, if you have it, the source that shows the correct position. When a figure is corrected, the data behind the page and the paid guide is corrected once, the page’s review date moves to the day of the correction, and the free page and the guide change together.

Who publishes this site, and how it is funded, is on the about page.