docs: def validate_email(self, email_address):
  
          '''
              a method to validate an email address
              
          :param email_address: string with email address to validate
          :return: dictionary with validation fields in response_details['json']
          '''
  
          title = '%s.validate_email' % __class__.__name__
  
      # validate inputs
          object_title = '%s(email_address="")' % title
          email_address = self.fields.validate(email_address, '.email_address', object_title)
  
      # construct request_kwargs
          request_kwargs = {
              'url': '%s/address/validate' % self.api_endpoint,
              'params': { 'address': email_address }
          }
  
      # send request
          response_details = self._get_request(**request_kwargs)
  
          return response_details