What Arbiter HR Is
Arbiter HR is a reference and research product for HR and payroll professionals. Our workbooks are designed to help you find the right citation, frame the right question, and surface the right considerations when employment-law compliance issues arise in your work.
Each piece of content cites the primary source it derives from — Department of Labor guidance, state labor departments, IRS publications, federal and state statutes and regulations. We provide structured access to publicly available legal and regulatory information, organized for HR and payroll workflows.
What Arbiter HR Is Not
Arbiter HR is not legal advice. Nothing in our workbooks is intended to be, and nothing should be relied upon as, legal advice for any specific situation, employee, or business.
Arbiter HR is not your lawyer. Slate Holdings LLC, the company that operates Arbiter HR, is not a law firm. Our staff and contributors are HR and payroll practitioners, not attorneys. We do not provide legal representation, do not establish an attorney-client relationship with our customers, and do not owe customers any duty of legal counsel.
Arbiter HR is not a substitute for counsel. Employment law, payroll regulation, and HR compliance are technical and fact-specific areas. The same general rule applies differently depending on jurisdiction, industry, headcount, employee classification, collective bargaining status, and dozens of other factors. For any specific situation involving a real employee, a real claim, a real audit, or a real legal exposure, you should consult an attorney licensed in the relevant jurisdiction.
How to Use Arbiter HR Workbooks
The right way to use Arbiter HR is as a starting point and a research aid:
- Use the workbooks to find the rule. When you need to know the final-pay deadline in Oregon or the pay transparency requirement in Colorado, the workbooks give you the answer with a citation.
- Use the citations to verify. Every cell in every workbook includes a citation to the primary source. The primary source is the authoritative answer. Arbiter HR's restatement of it is reference material.
- Use the monthly updates to stay current. New editions are released monthly to reflect regulatory changes we've identified. Use them as a regular checkpoint for your compliance reference materials.
What You Are Responsible For
When you use Arbiter HR content to inform a decision, you are responsible for:
- Verifying current law. Employment law changes. We refresh content monthly, but state and federal regulators issue guidance, enforcement positions, and rule changes on their own schedules. Before acting, verify against the cited primary source.
- Evaluating applicability. Determining whether a particular rule applies to your specific situation, employee, or business is your responsibility as the HR or payroll professional. We provide the rule; you apply it.
- Consulting counsel where warranted. If a situation involves potential litigation, a regulatory investigation, a complex employee relations matter, or any other circumstance where the cost of getting it wrong is material, you should consult an attorney before acting.
- Communicating disclaimers downstream. If you share an Arbiter HR workbook or excerpt with an employee, a manager, or another party, the disclaimer travels with the content. The recipient should understand the content is reference material based on cited public sources, not legal advice about their specific situation.
Workbook Currency
Workbooks are refreshed monthly. Each edition reflects our research methodology as of the refresh date printed on Tab 1. Between refreshes, regulatory changes may occur that are not yet incorporated. For high-stakes decisions, verify against the cited primary source before acting.
If you discover an error in any workbook, please email hello@arbiterhr.com. We correct errors in the next monthly edition and, for material errors, will issue a correction notice to active subscribers ahead of the regular monthly cycle.
No Attorney-Client Relationship
Use of Arbiter HR workbooks, communication with Arbiter HR or Slate Holdings staff, and receipt of any Arbiter HR content does not create an attorney-client relationship. Information you provide through correspondence with us is not protected by attorney-client privilege.
If you need legal representation, you should consult an attorney licensed in the relevant jurisdiction. We do not refer customers to specific attorneys and do not maintain a network of preferred counsel.
Questions
For questions about this disclaimer or about how Arbiter HR content should be used in your specific context, email hello@arbiterhr.com. Note that we cannot provide legal advice about your specific situation; for that, you need an attorney.