Evidence standards
Sourcing Policy
Effective and last reviewed: 2 August 2026
LodgeHQ uses the source closest to the entity responsible for a fact. A commercial provider, search result, AI answer or competitor summary does not replace the current instruction of NAATI, Home Affairs, a court, regulator or other receiving organisation.
Evidence hierarchy
| Priority | Source | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Current law, regulation and the responsible authority's official page, instrument, form or instruction | Controlling regulated requirements and definitions |
| 2 | Official directories, registers, regulator guidance and government business records | Credential, entity, complaint and compliance context |
| 3 | Verified LodgeHQ production code, configuration, contracts, operational logs and approved procedures | Marketplace workflow, access, pricing inputs, storage, retention and payout statements |
| 4 | Named expert commentary with verified role, current credential, consent and a stated review boundary | Interpretation and practical experience, not replacement of primary rules |
| 5 | Reputable secondary research, professional bodies and editorial sources | Context and discovery; material claims are traced back to primary evidence where possible |
Rules for regulated claims
- State which actor makes the rule and link to that actor's current page.
- Do not turn one authority's rule into a universal claim about every government body, court or receiving organisation.
- Use current NAATI credential terminology and make clear that NAATI credentials practitioners, not LodgeHQ or a document as an entity.
- For Home Affairs, citizenship, court and licensing material, state the jurisdiction, application context, relevant conditions and review date.
- If a primary source is inaccessible, contradictory or unclear, narrow the statement and tell the reader to confirm directly rather than filling the gap.
Marketplace and first-party evidence
Public statements about upload processing, automated reading, translator access, file retention, pricing, assignment, refunds, payouts and security must match the current production workflow. Marketing copy alone is not evidence. Where public and technical statements conflict, the claim is removed or qualified until the responsible owner resolves the conflict.
LodgeHQ does not publish translator counts, completed-order totals, language availability, acceptance rates, turnaround performance or error statistics unless the metric has a defined numerator, denominator, period, exclusions, data owner, privacy threshold and review date.
Links, quotations and competitors
The Receiving-Authority Source Register records a selected set of official pages, their direct scope, checked date and re-check trigger.
- Link directly to the relevant official page, not a search-results page.
- Use short quotations only when exact wording matters; otherwise paraphrase accurately and preserve qualifications.
- Check links and the underlying rule at publication and during factual review.
- Competitor pages can reveal user questions but are not copied and do not substantiate LodgeHQ claims.
- AI-generated text or citations are leads to verify, not evidence by themselves.
Source challenge
If a source is broken, superseded or does not support the published statement, follow the Corrections Policy or email [email protected] with the page URL and a better primary source.