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Standards

Sourcing Standards

Effective date: March 15, 2026. This page explains how Montana Blotter gathers, verifies, labels, and corrects public information.

Montana Blotter is designed to make public records and public meeting information easier to access. It is not a government office, and it does not replace official notice, clerk records, court files, or agency databases.

1. Primary Source Rule

We prefer direct links to official county, city, court, sheriff, police, and state judiciary pages. Where possible, each page should point readers back to the original public record, agenda, minutes page, or official document listing.

2. What We Standardize

  • Date and time formatting
  • Location and body-name labeling
  • Document labels such as agenda, packet, or minutes
  • Searchable statewide filters and metadata

3. What We Do Not Claim

  • We do not claim to be the official keeper of public records.
  • We do not guarantee that a third-party government site is complete, current, or correctly maintained.
  • We do not treat summaries or extracted text as a substitute for the official source file.

4. Update Cadence

Automated sources are checked on a recurring basis. Public pages may show the last successful source check or the last time a meeting was seen in a source feed. If a source is stale, broken, or moved, the originating public body remains the authoritative reference until the source is repaired.

5. Provenance and Visibility

We aim to show where information came from, when it was last refreshed, and how users can verify it. On higher-stakes pages, we prefer explicit provenance details over generic summaries.

6. Redactions and Sensitive Material

We may review records for obvious sensitivity, legal restrictions, or redaction issues. The existence of a public record does not automatically mean every field or derivative presentation should be amplified without review.

7. Corrections

If a source link breaks, a meeting is mislabeled, a record is duplicated, or a page needs clarification, we want a direct report. See the Corrections Policy for the reporting workflow.

8. Government and Clerk Communications

If you work for a Montana public body and need a source updated, corrected, or removed because the official location changed, contact us directly. We prefer exact URLs, dates, and a brief explanation of the change.

9. Contact

Montana Blotter
Website: montanablotter.com
Corrections and source updates: records@montanablotter.com