Before you write

§ 1 Read this first — it protects you


  1. No one here is your lawyer. This project cannot advise on your individual case, and writing to us does not create an attorney-client relationship. We publish methods for organizing evidence; we do not evaluate claims.
  2. If a deadline is near, act first. Do not wait for a reply from us before filing an appeal, response, or notice that has a clock on it. A timely, imperfect filing preserves rights; a perfect email to us preserves nothing.
  3. Send no case documents. No contracts, medical records, denial letters, photographs, or anything confidential — about your case or anyone else's. This mailbox is not a secure channel and the project never accepts real case files. Anything sent anyway will be deleted unread as far as practicable.
  4. A human reads this mailbox — replies are written by a person and may take several days. If your situation is urgent, your state's legal-aid office or bar referral service is the right first call, not this address.

§ 2 What this mailbox is for


Questions about using the methods; fixes and improvements from real use; anonymized outcomes (what held up, what didn't — with every identifying detail removed); jurisdiction signpost contributions; lawyers volunteering review time; press.

§ 3 Write your message


Submitting opens the message in your own email app, addressed to mailbox@buildtherecord.org — so a reply comes straight back to you, and nothing passes through a third party.

No email app configured? Copy the message and send it from any account to mailbox@buildtherecord.org.