Date discipline
Record the publication date, filing date, amendment date, and retrieval date. They may not mean the same thing.
Source literacy
Read the record before you read the argument.
Public records carry context: dates, custodians, amendments, portals, attachments, and gaps. Source literacy begins by slowing down enough to identify what the record is and what it is not.
Provenance
Ask where the document came from, who maintains the portal, and whether the copy points back to an official source.
Screenshots
Treat screenshots as pointers, not records. Look for the original page, file metadata, docket entry, agenda item, or archive.
Amendments
Check whether a filing, agenda, rule, or notice has been revised, continued, superseded, withdrawn, or replaced.
Portals
Agency portals often separate search results, document pages, attachments, and status fields. Read each layer carefully.
Informal sites
Private summaries, social posts, and commentary can help locate an issue, but they are not substitutes for the official source.
Official sources are maintained by courts, agencies, registries, legislatures, or other responsible public bodies. Informal sources may be useful pointers, but should not be treated as final authority.
Next shelf
Different record systems have different structures. A court docket, corporate registry, public meeting agenda, and regulatory database each require a different reading posture.
Open the resource shelf →