Sourcing methodology
Last updated 19 September 2026
What we include
Matter of Record is an independent, source-led editorial project. We link to publicly accessible court and agency materials, and to attributed reporting, where available. Pages are curated and may not include every development or source.
Every timeline entry links to a single source document. We prefer primary material: court filings, transcripts, judgments and dockets, and statements from courts, prosecutors and police. Where public docket access is thin, established reporting is used instead and the entry is shown in the timeline rather than the official record.
The official record includes only entries with a confirmed date and a link to a court, prosecutor, police, or government source. What counts is the document, not the site hosting a copy of it: a filing mirrored on a news site still qualifies, and a government-looking address does not turn reporting into an official release.
How we choose sources
A source qualifies if it is publicly accessible, produced by a court or public authority, or published by a recognised news organisation. A citation identifies the source of an entry and labels it Court document, Agency release, or News report; a source category or confirmed date is not a guarantee of every assertion in it.
Standpoint and position
Works are listed regardless of the conclusions they reach. Where a work or its publisher states the author's role in the case — defence, prosecution, witness, family, jury or journalistic — that role is recorded as its standpoint, and a short position note may state the work's argument in its own terms. Standpoint is never inferred from a work's conclusions and is never a judgement of accuracy, fairness or quality: a prosecutor's memoir is labelled by the same rule as a defence attorney's. Contested interpretation is not grounds for exclusion. Works are excluded only when they are not substantially about the case, are print-on-demand filler, or assert the guilt of a person who has not been charged.
Case updates
The "Latest Matter of Record update" on a case page is a short procedural note based on its cited timeline entries. Machine-drafted notes are labelled as such. Other notes are labelled as written here. The linked entries provide the sources and dates for the developments described.
When a link stops working
Entries flagged with a broken source link are hidden from the public timeline. Link checks are periodic, so a newly broken link may remain visible before it is detected.
Some court and government websites restrict access by location. A working source may therefore appear unavailable if you are opening it from outside the country where the site is hosted.
What appears in the coverage catalog
This is not an index of everything published about a case. Listing is not an endorsement of the work or its creator, and leaving something out is not a negative judgement of it either. If something is missing, suggest it.
Coverage items are podcast episodes, documentaries and docuseries, factual specials, journalism and non-fiction books. Each links to the publisher, platform or store page for that item. Generic homepage links, signed or tokenised media files and raw audio enclosures are never used as the public link. Card descriptions are written by us, never copied from the source.
What we leave out
Dramatised films, scripted TV dramas, reenactments and novelisations are out of scope — we index factual coverage only: documentaries, docuseries, factual specials, journalism and non-fiction books.
Multi-case anthologies, numbered 'true crime stories' volumes and print-on-demand compilations are out of scope — a work must be substantially about one case to be listed.
How corrections are handled
If you made or published something listed here and want a listing corrected, delisted, or a member tag on it reviewed, write to contact@matterofrecord.app with a link to the item and the detail you want changed.
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