Same energy as your demand-package checklist: short boxes, each with its why. 2 min to run
Print this page and keep it where the rate sheet lives, or run it on screen as the last step before Publish. Sections 1 and 2 are the law of the blog — they never change. Sections 3 and 4 are this month's mechanics.
1 — House rules (standing, every post, forever)
- Written to attorneys, never to injured people. One paragraph aimed at the public is a UPL problem wearing a blog post's clothes.
- Every case example fictional or fully de-identified — no client, no attorney, no recognizable matter. The discretion itself is a credential.
- Nothing reads as legal advice, and NorthStar never sounds like a law firm. You describe support work; attorneys do the law.
- No outcomes promised, no results implied — “moves an adjuster,” never “wins your case.”
- The educational disclaimer footer is present and intact: “Educational content for legal professionals — not legal advice.” (+ “All case examples fictional” where the draft carries it.)
2 — This month's review flags (from the draft's header)
- Ethics framing verified against your state's rules and your actual practices — Months 1, 4, 20, 21. (M21: the jurisdiction-variance disclaimer survived your edits.)
- Every dollar figure matches the rate sheet as of today — Months 4, 12, 22. Rates changed? Recompute the worked examples before publish, not after.
- Benchmark hours are your real turnarounds — Months 7, 22, and consistent with each other.
- Records-fee / HITECH references current — Month 18.
- The voice pass is done: you'd say every sentence out loud to an attorney on the phone.
3 — The post itself
- Title and slug match the front matter exactly — the slug is permanent.
- Meta title (≤60) and meta description (~150–155) pasted, not paraphrased.
- Headings are real H2s and H3s, lists are real lists — not bold text and hyphens.
- Front-matter header and Compose-stage checklist stripped — scaffolding never publishes.
- All three internal links wired and clicked: service page, live sibling, contact/pricing. No links to unpublished posts.
- FAQ months (1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 20, 22): structured-data block pasted.
- The CTA points where the draft says — services, pricing, or contact.
4 — After publish
- Live post checked on desktop and phone — formatting held, images load, footer present.
- Backlinks added: any earlier post that was waiting to link here gets its link now.
- Month checked off on Your Calendar.
- Newsletter note queued (M9 is the lead magnet; M5, M11, M24 get promoted twice).
- Next month's draft skimmed — five minutes now makes next month's hour shorter.
If a box won't check
Don't publish around it. A post that ships a week late costs nothing; a wrong rate or a shaky ethics line costs trust. Fix it, or email John — then ship.
Demands don't fail in the writing nearly as often as they fail in the assembly. Blogs too.Why this page exists