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Our methodology

How we source and verify · updated June 2026

Every figure on this site is traced to an official government source — a state statute or administrative rule, or the agency that administers it. This page explains exactly how we research, verify, publish, and maintain that data, so you can judge it for yourself.

The sources we use, in order of authority

We rely only on primary government sources. We do not take figures from insurance-company marketing pages, comparison blogs, or content aggregators. For each field we identify the most authoritative source available, in this order:

1. State statutes — the law itself (a state's vehicle or insurance code), which sets minimum liability limits, filing requirements, and penalties.
2. State administrative rules — the regulations agencies issue to implement those statutes.
3. The responsible state agency — the Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Insurance, or equivalent that administers the requirement and publishes official fees, forms, and guidance.

Where an agency's plain-language summary and the underlying statute disagree, the statute governs, and we note the discrepancy. Every value on a state page links to the specific source it came from, so you can open the original and confirm it yourself.

How a value gets verified

Each field moves through the same steps before it is published:

1. Research — we locate the controlling statute, rule, or official agency page for that specific requirement in that specific state.
2. Verification — we check the value against the primary source text itself, not against a secondary description of it. For each value we record how it was confirmed: against a primary government source, against a secondary official source, or not yet collected.
3. Publication — the value goes live with its source link and the date the state was last verified, both shown on the page.
4. Periodic review — each state is re-checked on a recurring schedule keyed to its last-verified date, so older entries are revisited even when no change has been reported.

When and how we update

Requirements change, and the page has to keep up. We update a state when any of the following happens:

• A law changes — a new minimum, a different filing period, or a revised penalty takes effect.
• An agency publishes an update — new fees, forms, or official guidance.
• A scheduled review comes due under the periodic-review cycle described above.

When a value changes, we update the affected fields, refresh the verification date, and record what changed. Changes with a known future effective date are tracked so the page can reflect them when they take effect, and recent changes surface in the "Recent law changes" feed on the home page and on the comparison pages.

How the comparison pages work

The side-by-side comparison pages introduce no new or hand-entered numbers. They are generated from the same verified state records shown on the individual state pages. When you compare two states, each value is pulled from that state's record, carries the same official source link, and reflects the same last-verified date. The "bottom line" and the list of differences are derived directly from those verified values rather than written separately — so a comparison can never drift away from the underlying state data.

What this is — and isn't

This site is a plain-language reference built to be accurate, current, and checkable. It is not legal advice and not a substitute for confirming requirements with your state agency or a licensed professional. Laws change, individual circumstances vary, and there can be a gap between an official change and our next review.