Editorial process
How we produce and review our coverage
Severance Ledger covers money and law, so accuracy is the whole job. This page documents exactly how an article moves from idea to publication, who reviews it, and the limits of what it can tell you.
How an article is written
Our articles are produced with AI-assisted drafting and finished by human editorial review. A draft is generated against a structured brief — target question, the primary sources that govern it, and the figures it must get right — and then a human editor reads every article in full before it is published. The editor checks the citations against their sources, confirms that statutes, rates, and formulas are current, removes anything that reads as generic or unsupported, and approves the piece for release. Nothing is published unread.
Drafts also pass an automated pre-publication check that enforces length, citation density, a minimum number of primary-source links, a required "consult a professional" disclaimer, and a screen for boilerplate AI phrasing. That check is a floor, not the gate: it can only catch mechanical problems. The human editor is the real reviewer, and approval is a person's decision, not a script's.
How we cite sources
Every factual claim is grounded in a primary source: IRS publications, Department of Labor and OPM guidance, state labor codes, EEOC materials, court records, WARN notices, and company filings (SEC 8-Ks, press releases, earnings reports). Where an article states a company's severance terms or a layoff figure, that number comes from cited public reporting — never from estimation or inference. Sources are listed on each article and linked inline so you can verify the underlying material yourself.
When we describe a legal framework, we link the governing statute or agency guidance directly rather than paraphrasing a secondary summary. The point is that you should never have to take our word for a number or a rule: the source is one click away.
About our bylines
Severance Ledger publishes under a small number of editorial bylines. These bylines represent the analytical perspectives our editorial desk brings to different topics — tax mechanics, employment law, negotiation — rather than individual named journalists with separate biographies. They are composite editorial bylines, operated by the same publisher as the rest of the site.
We are deliberate about this. We do not attach AI-generated headshots, fabricated professional credentials, or machine-readable "author" identities to these names, because presenting constructed authors as real, credentialed people would be dishonest on exactly the kind of money-and-law content where honesty matters most. The names you see signal an editorial point of view; the publisher behind them is disclosed here, in the footer, and on our About page.
Who publishes Severance Ledger
Severance Ledger and SeveranceCalc.com are operated by the same publisher. We say so plainly because the relationship matters: when an article points you to SeveranceCalc's paid assessment tool, we are recommending our own product, and we label it as such rather than presenting it as an independent endorsement. Our analysis stands on its cited public sources whether or not a given article links to that tool.
We do not accept paid placement, sponsored posts, or affiliate links inside editorial coverage. The only product we promote is our own, and we disclose it every time.
How we handle numbers
Severance outcomes depend on your employer's policy, your tenure, your state, and the specific terms of your agreement. Because of that, the figures in our articles are ballpark ranges and typical patterns, not precise predictions for your situation. We are confident and specific about things that are verifiable — tax rates, statutory rules, how a formula is calculated — and we keep legal and tax outcomes conditional, because those genuinely depend on facts we don't have. We would rather give you an honest range than a falsely precise number.
How we keep articles current
Employment law, tax thresholds, and company severance practices change. We refresh coverage when the facts move — within days of a covered company's layoff or severance news, and on a recurring verification pass over our higher-traffic and time-sensitive pieces. When an article is meaningfully updated, its "last updated" date changes to reflect the revision, so a visible date tells you how fresh the page actually is rather than when it first went live.
What this is not
Severance Ledger is informational and educational. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client or any other professional relationship. We describe the frameworks and the typical patterns; we cannot tell you what to do in your specific situation. If you are facing termination, discrimination, retaliation, a complex tax question, or a severance agreement you are being asked to sign, consult an attorney, CPA, or financial professional licensed in your state before you act.
Found an error?
We correct mistakes openly. If you spot a factual error — a wrong citation, an outdated rule, a misstated figure — email editor@severanceledger.com. See our corrections policy for how we issue and label corrections.