Editorial & data-integrity policy
Every number on this site is a legal figure someone may rely on to calculate what they owe or are owed. That is why accuracy — not volume — is the point. Here is exactly how we verify each rate, how often we re-check it, and what we do when we get something wrong.
How rates are sourced
We record a citation and URL alongside every value. A controlling government source is preferred. State-authorized code portals and judicial summaries are labeled official-secondary when they are useful but are not themselves the controlling enactment. State rules remain calculator-ineligible until the source, history, branches, and arithmetic mechanics are complete. Records fall into four kinds:
- Statute-fixed rates (e.g. a flat 12% written into the code) are verified word-for-word against a cited statute or court source and re-checked on a schedule because a legislature can amend them.
- Agency- or court-set variable rates (a prime-rate or Treasury-linked formula reset each quarter or year) are read from the official agency page that publishes the current period's figure, with the effective period recorded.
- Derived rates (e.g. the federal post-judgment rate under 28 U.S.C. §1961, or Iowa's Treasury-plus-two formula) are computed by us from an official series using the governing statutory formula — and every such page shows the formula and links the underlying data, so you can check our arithmetic. We never present a computed number as authoritative without its formula and source.
- Case-specific rules have no honest statewide numeric value. In those records the API deliberately returns a null number and a plain-language rule, preventing rankings and calculators from silently treating a contract rate or judge-selected rate as a universal percentage.
When a rate has a genuine carve-out — a different figure for tort versus contract, for consumer debt, or against a government entity — we state it rather than flattening it into one number, because the wrong branch is as misleading as the wrong number.
How often each series is re-checked
The derived and market-linked federal, UK, and EU series refresh automatically once a week from their official sources; a validation suite checks types, ranges, and cross-value consistency, and if anything fails the failed run cannot overwrite the last validated export. Curated state rates require a separate source-check process. Every page carries the effective date recorded for the value and exposes all observations currently held in the free JSON API; a one-point record is not described as complete historical coverage.
Calculator safety gate
A state reference value is not automatically safe for calculation. State calculators stay disabled unless the source is primary and the rate history, claim-type branches, accrual rule, day-count rule, reset behavior, and compounding method are all structured and pass automated validation.
Corrections
If you believe a rate is wrong, email [email protected] with the page and, if you can, the official source. We check every report against the controlling primary source. If we confirm an error we correct the record and its provenance; the rate-change feed reports newly recorded effective-rate changes, not a complete editorial correction ledger. Before reporting, it is worth opening the official source linked on the page — a rate may have changed at its statutory reset date since you last looked, which is exactly the kind of movement this site exists to track.
Independence & funding
StatuteRates is independent and designed to be supported by display advertising, not by subscriptions, sponsors, or referral deals with any law firm or vendor. Advertising never influences a rate: the numbers come only from the cited sources, and the data and API are free and un-paywalled. If advertising is enabled, the provider may set cookies — see the Privacy Policy.
Using & citing the data
Statutes and court rules are government edicts; statistical publications and third-party pages may carry separate reuse terms, which are recorded per source. Our compilation, wording, and effective-date provenance are our own work. You are welcome to cite or link to any page, and every rate page includes a one-click “Cite this page” citation. For programmatic access, the JSON API is free and needs no key. If you want to reuse the compiled dataset at scale, a short note to [email protected] is appreciated.
What we are — and are not
We are a reference for what the statutory, judgment, prejudgment, and tax interest rates currently are, with sources you can verify. We are not a law firm and this is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Which rate applies to a specific matter — and how it compounds, when it starts, and what carve-outs apply — is a legal question for the controlling statute and, where needed, a licensed professional. Always confirm the figure against the official source before you rely on it.