How We Research

Every Alliance guide is built the same way: from primary law outward. This page documents the hierarchy, so you can hold us to it.

The source hierarchy

1. Statutes and regulations. The controlling text comes first — the U.S. Code, the CFR, and state codes where relevant.
2. Official agency guidance. Form instructions, policy manuals, and agency explainers from USCIS, DOL, EEOC, CFPB, IRS, FTC, and their peers.
3. Courts. Decisions are cited descriptively, by real name and year, only where a holding genuinely shapes the topic.
4. Everything else. Bar associations and established legal references may add context. Marketing content, forums, and AI summaries are never sources.

Jurisdiction checks

Before publishing, each guide is checked for a specific failure mode: presenting one state's rule as national law. Where rules vary — deposit caps, lien deadlines, support formulas — the guide says "varies by state," gives only truthful generic ranges, and links to official sources for local numbers.

Volatile facts and dates

Filing fees, processing times, thresholds, and rules under active litigation go stale quickly. Our rule: link, don't freeze. Guides point to the live official page for changeable numbers, and where a figure must appear in text it is dated in place ("as of mid-2026") so you can judge its freshness.

Hypotheticals

Examples are invented to teach and are labeled as hypothetical. They never describe real clients — we have none — and never imply an outcome you should expect.

The limits of this method

Careful secondary research is still secondary. A guide can map the process and flag the variables, but it cannot weigh your facts. Decisions with real consequences deserve a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction — and our guides tell you at which points that help matters most.

Errors that slip through get fixed under the corrections process, dated in place. If you spot one, we genuinely want to know.