How We Verify Our Legal Data

A promissory note carries real legal stakes: the maximum interest rate your state allows, the penalty for crossing that line, and how long a lender has to sue on the note. We display these values on every state page and use the usury cap to warn you on the form if your rate is too high. A wrong number here could point someone toward an unenforceable loan, so we hold this data to a primary-source standard. This page explains exactly how.

We use official primary sources only

Every per-state value comes from an official government source: the codified statute itself, read on the legislature's own site. We load the live official page and record the exact non-search URL along with the verbatim sentence the value rests on.

We do not treat a Google or Bing result snippet as the final authority, even when it quotes an official site. Snippets truncate the exemptions, brackets, and effective dates that change what a usury rule actually means. We also do not rely on legal aggregator sites such as Justia, FindLaw, or Nolo as the source of truth. They are useful for finding a statute number, but the codified statute is always the final word.

We read the full statute, not just the headline rate

Usury law is layered: a general cap, exemptions for licensed lenders or business loans, a separate default rate when no rate is written, and sometimes an index that moves over time. Reading the full statute is how we catch errors that a quick search would repeat. When a state genuinely has no general usury cap for private lending, we say so rather than inventing a number, and we remove thresholds that do not actually exist in the code: our 2026 review struck a non-existent dollar threshold that earlier data had attached to Illinois and another that had been attached to Oklahoma.

What our last review covered

In May 2026 we audited all 51 US jurisdictions (50 states plus the District of Columbia). The review covered maximum interest rates, the default legal rate when no rate is specified, usury penalties and their severity, and the statute of limitations for enforcing a note, with each value read from the official statute and logged with its URL and verbatim text. Examples of values confirmed or corrected in that review:

The six-year statute of limitations on negotiable instruments under UCC 3-118, with Louisiana set to its own five-year period under Civil Code article 3498.
Colorado's maximum rate corrected to reflect HB23-1229 and C.R.S. 5-2-201.
Georgia confirmed at a 7% default legal rate and a 16% written-contract cap, per O.C.G.A. 7-4-2.
North Dakota's cap confirmed against its Treasury-bill index, which moves with the published rate.
Non-existent dollar thresholds removed from the Illinois and Oklahoma entries after a full read of the code.

These values do not print into the promissory note you generate. They power the state pages, our free tools, and the interest-rate warning that flags a rate above your state's cap while you fill out the form, so we treat them as high-stakes reference data.

What we are not

Your Promissory Note is a document-preparation service, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. Laws change, and a usury cap or limitations period can shift between our reviews. For a large loan or a question specific to your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state. The requirements we display reflect our most recent verified review, and we name the governing statute on every state page so you can confirm the current rule yourself.

Found something wrong? Tell us

If you believe a value is out of date or incorrect, email [email protected] with the state, the field, and a link to the official source. We re-verify against the primary source and correct it promptly when warranted.

Your Promissory Note is operated by 7H Ventures LLC, based in Georgia. Legal data last reviewed May 2026.