Last Updated: July 25, 2026
Justice Is A Process is an independent trial-coverage publication. We follow criminal trials across the United States and explain, in plain language, what happens inside a courtroom. This page sets out the standards every piece of our written and video coverage is held to. It is the working rulebook, not a statement of aspiration.
Our coverage is built on the public court record. We cover the public broadcast of a proceeding directly, from gavel to adjournment, rather than reacting to secondhand summaries. When we write about a trial day, we watched that trial day. Where a fact comes from outside the courtroom, such as a charging document or a filed motion, we say so.
Each trial day is transcribed from the courtroom audio using machine transcription with voice-activity detection, which keeps the transcript faithful to what was actually said. Machine transcription is a tool, not an authority. Every quotation we publish is checked against the recording before it goes out. Where a line is unclear, ambiguous, or turns on a single word such as a negation, a person listens to the audio and resolves it by ear before it reaches a reader. If we cannot resolve it, we do not publish it as a quote.
A trial has two cases in it. We cover the State's witnesses and the defense's cross-examination, because the question a lawyer asks is a map of where the case is contested. A question is never reported as a fact. We report that a side put the question, what the witness actually said in response, and what it means for the case.
No headline, thumbnail, description, or summary declares a person guilty before a jury has. This applies to every surface we publish, including the ones written to attract a reader. When a verdict is returned we report it plainly and accurately, and we report an acquittal with the same prominence as a conviction.
Names, dates, and case numbers are verified against the record before publication. When a name is unclear in the audio and we cannot confirm its spelling against court records or press reporting, we do not guess it. We leave the person unnamed or describe them by role until the spelling is confirmed.
Cases involving deceased victims, and especially children, are covered with the weight they carry. We do not use a victim's death, injuries, or images as an attention device, and we do not publish autopsy or crime scene imagery. Where a proceeding turns on painful detail, we report what the record established and move on.
We are independent and reader-supported, funded through advertising, YouTube channel memberships, and viewer support. No party to a case we cover, and no attorney, agency, or firm involved in one, pays for or reviews our coverage before publication.
When we get something wrong, we fix it and we say that we fixed it. Our full Corrections Policy explains how to report an error and how we handle it.
Justice Is A Process is founded and led by Steven M. Askin II, who is responsible for the editorial content published here. He is not a lawyer. You can read about his background and why this publication exists on our About page. Questions about these standards are welcome at justicewatchlive@gmail.com.