Editorial policy

Where facts come from

1. Court records first. Case numbers, judges and pending case counts come from the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) report and the court's own orders.
2. Agencies and companies next. Label changes come from the FDA. Settlement facts come from court orders, SEC filings or the company's own statement.
3. Coverage last. When a primary record is not available, we cite named news or legal coverage and label the fact reported.

How we label facts

• Verified: we read the primary record ourselves on the check date.
• Reported: the fact comes from coverage and we could not confirm it on a primary record.
• Every lawsuit page shows the date we last checked it and the JPML report date for its case count.

How often we update

• Case counts are refreshed each month when the JPML publishes its report (usually the first business days of the month). Older counts stay in each page's update log and in our case count data.
• Every lawsuit page is rechecked at least every 45 days. Our build refuses to publish a page that has gone longer.
• Big events (a settlement, a verdict, a court ruling) are added when we confirm them.

What we never publish

• Estimates of what a person might be paid, or "average settlement" figures.
• Statements about whether a reader qualifies or is eligible.
• Medical advice. Drug pages tell readers not to stop any medicine without talking to their doctor.
• Recommendations of a specific lawyer or law firm.

Advertising is separate

Participating law firms pay a flat fee for calls from lawsuit pages. They do not review, approve or edit our content, and payment never changes what a page says. See How we are paid.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it, date the change in the page's update log and list it on our corrections page. Write to corrections@lawsuitmap.com.