This page is the standard the whole site is built on. It is published in full so you can hold us to it.
The sources we accept
Every figure on ProbateTerra comes from one of three places, in this order of preference:
- The state statute, read on the legislature’s own website.
- The court system’s official fee schedule, on a .gov or .us site.
- A county court’s published fee schedule, where fees are set at the county level.
Nothing else qualifies. Not legal-information websites, not law-firm blogs, not aggregators — not even as “additional reading” next to a figure. If we can’t source a number from the law or the court itself, we don’t publish the number.
The verification step
Research on this site is AI-assisted: drafting, organizing, and locating sources. Verification is done by a person, every time.
Before any figure is published, a human being clicks the source link, reads the official page, and confirms the figure matches. Only then is the verification date stamped. The stamp you see next to a figure — VERIFIED with a date — means exactly that: on that date, a person looked at the official source and the figure was correct.
Coverage: every statutory and state-level figure is verified this way — 100%, no sampling. Long-tail supporting details are spot-checked at a rate of at least 1 in 10.
The page date rule
Each page carries one verification date. It is always the oldest date among the figures on that page — the page is only as fresh as its stalest figure. We think that is the honest way to date a page, and it is the opposite of how most sites do it.
Re-checking
Statutes change. Fee schedules change more often. Every figure on this site is re-checked against its source on an annual cycle, and the stamp is updated when it passes. When a source changes, the figure changes the same day the change is confirmed.
Corrections
If you spot a figure you believe is stale or wrong, email contact@probateterra.com. Every report is checked against the official source. Confirmed errors are corrected within 72 hours, and the correction is logged on this page.
(Correction log begins when the first correction is made. An empty log is not a claim of perfection — it is a young site.)
What verification does not mean
A verified figure means the law or fee schedule said this on the stamped date. It does not mean this is what your probate will cost. Courts have discretion, estates differ, counties differ, and laws change. For what applies to you, talk to a licensed attorney in your state.