Our Editorial Process
CityRuleLookup provides plain-English summaries of local ordinances sourced directly from primary government records. Every entry is researched and verified against the original law before it is published. The site is edited by Martyn O'Neill.
How We Research
Every ordinance page on CityRuleLookup goes through a structured research process:
- ✓We work only from primary sources: a city or county’s own website and ordinance PDFs, state statute sites, and the municipal code libraries most local governments publish their codes through, such as Municode, American Legal Publishing, eCode360 and Code Publishing. Those libraries are where the majority of US municipalities put their official code, so a citation to one is a citation to the governing text. We do not use news articles, blogs, or aggregator sites as a source for what a rule says.
- ✓We extract specific code section numbers, fine amounts, distances, hours, and unique local rules directly from the source.
- ✓We write plain-English summaries that highlight the key facts residents need to know.
- ✓We include source links back to official documents so you can read the full legal text yourself.
- ✓We cross-reference state-level laws to note preemptions where state law overrides local ordinances.
Verification & Accuracy
76,000+
Ordinance pages carrying a word-for-word quotation from the governing code, its exact section number, and a link to the official source it was read on
88,000+
Ordinance pages live in total, each showing the date its source was last checked
- ✓A page is only published if we can quote the provision itself. Where we cannot find and quote the governing text on an official source, we publish nothing for that topic rather than describe the rule from memory or from a third-party summary.
- ✓Pages are re-checked on a rolling basis, with the most-visited pages revisited first. Every page states when its source was last checked, so you can judge the age of what you are reading.
- ✓Each page carries a dated freshness label: “Recently verified” within three months, the verification month thereafter, and an explicit warning that the information may be outdated once it passes a year.
What We Cover
We cover 650+ cities and 350+ counties across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, plus statewide pages where a state law governs instead of a local one. Coverage spans 59 categories and 367 individual topics. The most-used categories are:
Reader Submissions & Corrections
We take accuracy seriously and investigate every submission. If you find outdated or incorrect information on any page, you can submit a correction using the correction form. If you know the official rule for a topic we haven’t published yet, you can send it to us through the information form. Our team reviews all reports and updates verified pages as quickly as possible.
Every submission is reviewed by a human editor and checked against the official municipal code or state statute before it changes anything on the site. Reader submissions are never published verbatim and never appear on the site without that verification, all published content is written by our editorial team and grounded in the primary source. Submissions that cannot be confirmed from an official source are not published, and submissions containing unlawful, hateful, deceptive, or otherwise inappropriate material are discarded.
CityRuleLookup has no comment sections, forums, or other areas where visitor-written content is displayed publicly.
Not Legal Advice
The information on CityRuleLookup is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. While we strive for accuracy, local ordinances change frequently and interpretations may vary. Always consult your local authorities or a qualified attorney for guidance on specific situations. For more details, see our full disclaimer.