Our Editorial Methodology & Sourcing Standards

1. What counts as a source

We rank sources in a fixed order and always cite the highest tier available. Tier 1 is primary law: the state code or statute text, administrative regulations, and published court rules or opinions. Tier 2 is the agency that administers the rule — the DMV, Department of Public Safety, Department of Revenue, or the trial court that hears DUI cases in that county. Tier 3 is federal statistical data: NHTSA, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, CDC, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

We do not cite law-firm blogs, content farms, Reddit, Quora, or aggregator sites as authority for a legal figure. Where a private study is the only public data (for example, insurance rate increases after a DUI), we name the study and its publisher in the text instead of presenting the number as an official statistic.

2. How a page is drafted

Drafts are produced with AI assistance using a citation-returning research model, then filtered automatically: low-quality domains are dropped, dead links are removed, and any legal or numeric claim without a Tier 1–3 source behind it is flagged before a human ever sees the draft. AI is never the final authority on a legal claim.

3. Human verification before publication

A human editor opens the linked statute or agency page and checks each figure on the page against it: BAC thresholds, offense tiers, lookback periods, fine ranges, jail exposure, license-suspension windows, ignition interlock triggers, and SR-22 or FR-44 filing rules. A page that cannot be verified against a primary source is not published. Where sources genuinely conflict — a statute amended mid-year, or an agency page that lags the code — we state the conflict rather than picking the more convenient figure.

4. Numbers we refuse to publish

Some widely repeated DUI statistics have no verifiable public source. National DUI dismissal and reduction rates are the standard example: case outcomes are recorded county by county and are never aggregated federally, so any single national percentage is invented. We say that plainly instead of quoting a figure. The same rule applies to "average" total DUI costs, conviction odds, and success rates for particular defenses.

5. Local pages: what is verified and what is contextual

State pages carry the verified statutory detail. County and city pages narrow that same verified material to the court and licensing office that actually handle a local arrest, and they link to those specific agencies. Geographic context on a local page — population, jurisdiction, which court hears the case — is descriptive, not legal advice, and the controlling law is always the state law linked from the state page.

6. Dating, review cadence, and update history

Every page displays the date of its most recent substantive update, and that visible date is the same value emitted in the page's dateModified structured data. Indexable pages are reviewed at least annually and immediately after a known statutory change. Each page carries an update history block listing when it was published, generated, and last reviewed.

7. Corrections

Every page has a "Report an error" control in its editorial block. Reports go to our editorial queue and are triaged against the primary source. Material changes get a dated correction note on the page. You can also email corrections@duiguide.us with the URL and the issue; we aim to respond within five business days.

8. Independence and conflicts of interest

The site is funded by advertising and by clearly labeled affiliate or referral relationships with insurance, interlock, and treatment providers. No advertiser, affiliate, or attorney reviews or approves editorial content, and no commercial relationship changes a legal figure, a penalty range, or a recommendation of when to consult counsel. Editors disclose personal conflicts and recuse themselves from affected pages; the full policy is on our team page.

9. What we are not

DUIGuide.us is an information publisher, not a law firm. Our editors are legal researchers and writers, not attorneys, and we never present them as lawyers. Reading this site does not create an attorney-client relationship. A licensed attorney in your state is the only person who can advise you on your specific case.