Editorial Standards and Sources

Scope

Every page is about a California trust, probate or inheritance dispute: a contested matter, alleged misconduct by a trustee or executor, a challenge to a document, a dispute over property, or a court remedy. Pages describe California law only. General estate-planning and routine administration topics are covered only where a dispute needs them explained.

How pages are written

Articles are written from research and official sources gathered for each topic, and they pass the checks described below before they are published. A page that fails a blocking check is not published. Each article shows the date it was last updated.

Sources, in order of authority

1. California statutes, from California Legislative Information (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov), the Legislature's official site, chiefly the Probate Code.
2. The California Judicial Branch (courts.ca.gov) and the California Rules of Court.
3. Decisions of the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal, where appropriate.
4. Superior Court local rules, probate forms and procedural resources.
5. Secondary sources, used only to supplement, never to override, the sources above.

Each article lists the sources it relies on, with links, at the end of the page.

What is checked before publication

• Statutes. Each California statute an article cites is looked up on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, and what the article says about it is compared against the statute's own words.
• Case law. Case citations are checked against CourtListener, a public database of court opinions. A citation that cannot be found there stops publication.
• Other pre-publication checks. Among them: that the law described is California's, that cited statutes are current, that required disclosures and structured data are present, and that no unfinished placeholder text remains.
• Second review. Each draft is read a second time and possible errors are flagged. A flag is acted on only after it has been checked against the source text; a flag alone does not change a page.

Attorney review

Content pages name their reviewing attorney in small print at the end of the page. The checks above apply to every page.

The site's own pages

Statements of law on this site's own pages (the home page, for example) quote or paraphrase the statute they cite, and each was compared against the statute's text on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov on October 6, 2026.

Corrections

To report an error, email info@californiatrustlitigation.com with the page address and what you believe is wrong.

Not legal advice

Pages are general information about California law, not advice about any particular situation. See the Terms of Use.