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Research Methodology

Primary Source Hierarchy

Every legal claim on rigunlaws.com is anchored to a primary source. We follow a strict hierarchy:

  1. Statutes — The enacted text of Rhode Island laws as published in the official compiled statutes. For federal questions, the United States Code (18 U.S.C. Chapter 44) or the Code of Federal Regulations (27 C.F.R. Part 478).
  2. Court opinions — Opinions from Rhode Island courts, the relevant federal circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. We check procedural posture before treating a decision as settled law.
  3. Administrative rules and agency guidance — Promulgated regulations and official agency bulletins. These bind agency action even when they do not have the force of statute.
  4. Official agency publications — Application forms, official FAQs, and guidance documents published by the relevant Rhode Island agency. These reflect current practice even when they diverge from statutory text.

News coverage is used for discovery only — to identify that something may have changed. The primary source is always cited as the authority.

How We Identify Changes

We monitor across several channels to detect legal changes within 72 hours:

  • Legislative tracking — Enrolled and enacted bills through the Rhode Island legislature's official publication system.
  • Court docket monitoring — Active Second Amendment cases via CourtListener. New opinions, orders, and injunctions trigger a content review.
  • Agency website monitoring — Updated forms, guidance documents, fee schedules, and procedural changes.
  • Reader corrections — Every correction report is investigated.

How We Verify Content

  1. Locate the primary source — For statutes, this means reading the current enrolled text. For court decisions, this means reading the opinion itself.
  2. Check effective date — We confirm when the law or decision became operative. Laws frequently have delayed effective dates.
  3. Verify against agency practice — For procedural claims, we check the agency's current application materials against what the statute requires. When these diverge, we note both.
  4. Cross-check penalties — Penalty ranges are verified against the statute text. We distinguish between charge classification and actual sentence range, and note mandatory minimums separately.

Update Cadence

Articles are updated:

  • Within 72 hours of a relevant enacted law, court decision, or agency guidance change.
  • Quarterly — every article is reviewed at minimum once per quarter.
  • Within 24 hours of a confirmed reader correction.

Corrections

If you identify an error, contact us at corrections@rigunlaws.com. Include the page URL, the specific claim you believe is incorrect, and the primary source that contradicts it. Confirmed errors are corrected within 24 hours.