Finding State Statutes in the Law Library and on the Internet
Many of the principles that apply to researching federal statutes can be used when dealing with state statutes. however, there are some differences in federal and state legislative processes and in the re sources that you use to find and interpret state statutes.
Overview of Annotated Collections of State Statutes
State statutes are organized by subject and published in two formats:• annotated volumes that contain explanatory in-formation about each statute and references to court decisions that have interpreted the statutes; and • non-annotated volumes, which contain only the text of the statutes. intensive legal research almost always is done with the annotated volumes. however, many people, lawyers and non-lawyers alike, use the non-annotated version of certain statutes (say, the criminal statutes, or those relating to probate) as a handy desk reference.Some states organize their statutes into codes according to subject. California, for example, has a sep arate code for each legal area—the penal Code for criminal statutes, the education Code for education statutes, and so on. new york organizes its statutes in a similar fashion, except that instead of the word “code,” the word “law” is used. in new york you find education statutes in the volume called education law, the criminal statutes in the volumes labeled penal law, and so on.in a number of other states, statutes are collected into annotated volumes organized by title number or by “chapter.” in vermont, for instance, the Vermont Statutes Annotated (Vt. Stat. Ann.) consists of title 1 through title 33, each title covering a particular subject matter area.Finally, in still other states, the statutes are simply numbered sequentially without regard to their subject matter and published in collections with such names as Massachusetts General Laws Annotated (Mass. Gen. Laws Ann.), Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated (Mich. Comp. Laws Ann.) and Maine Revised Statutes Annotated (Me. Rev. Stat. Ann.)
Using State Statute Indexes
Many collections of state statutes have indexes for each subject (that is, for each title, code or chapter) and for the collection of laws as a whole. in California, a separate index called Larmac, published by lexis publishing, also provides a detailed subject in dex to California statutes.if your state’s statutes are found in two or more publications, feel free to use either index. For exam ple, the California statutes are published both in West’s Annotated Codes and in Deering’s Annotated Codes (lexis publishing). if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the West index, use the deering index. Since both publications index the same statutes and use the same citations, a citation you find in the deering index can be looked up in the West code, Library Exercise: Finding Statutes by Pub. L. No. This exercise asks you to use the U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News to find a statute known only by its Public Law number. Additional research exercises that include these and other skills are in Chapter 11.QuestionYou are researching federal disaster assistance acts, and find a reference to Pub. L. No. 101-82. Using U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News only, find the statute and any clues as to where to find its legislative history.AnswerThe 101 means the statute was passed by the 101st Congress. On the spine of Volume 1 of 101st Congress 1st session 1989, it says Laws Pub. L. No. 101–1 to 101–189.The statutes are more or less in order by their public law number, and Public Law No. 101-82 is found on page 103 Stat. 564 (Stat. = Statutes at Large). The title is Disaster Assistance Act of 1989. Right under the title it says “For Legislative History of Act, see p. 514.” and vice versa. (For assistance in using legal indexes, see Chapter 4.)
Understanding State Statutory Citations
Citations to state statutes normally refer to the title (or volume) and section numbers.
Reading All Relevant Statutes
State statutes are organized in clumps called “statutory schemes.” if you are interested in a particular area of the law (small claims court, for example) be sure to read all relevant statutes on that subject. you may find that you can sue for up to $2,000 in one statute and then learn in another one that a lower limit has been set for cases involving evictions.
Using Pocket Parts to Get the Latest Version
in many states, legislatures have a severe case of hyper-activity, continually passing new statutes and amending old ones. it is very important to get the very latest version of the statute you are interested in.hardcover volumes of state statutes should have current “pocket parts,” paper supplements that fit in side the back cover of each hardbound volume. these update the hardcover portion on an annual basis (unless the hardcover volume you are using has just been published or the legislature only meets every other year). Always check the pocket part to see if a statute you’re reading has been amended or repealed. if the pocket part is not current (say you are using the book in 2008 and the pocket part says 2006), ask the law librarian if there is a newer version.there are two ways that pocket parts show up dates. in most states, the part of the statute that has been amended is shown in the pocket part, with ad ditions underlined and deletions marked by asterisks. For example, a California statute in its original form as it appeared in the hardcover volume, and the amended version as it appeared in the pocket part, are both shown below. As you can see, words that have been added to the statute are underlined and words that have been taken out are represented by asterisks. and vice versa. (For assistance in using legal indexes, see Chapter 4.) Understanding State Statutory CitationsCitations to state statutes normally refer to the title (or volume) and section numbers. the three exam ples shown below are typical.in the states that have codes, like new york and California, citations look like those shown below.
in some states, the pocket parts reprint the sec tions of any statutes that have been amended. Sections of the statute that have not been amended are not reproduced in the pocket part; instead, you are referred to the hardcover volume for the text. note how the pocket part refers the reader back to the hardcover volume for sections that have not been changed.
Finding State Statutes and Legislation on the Internet
every state now maintains its statutes on the internet. Sometimes the state itself runs the site, while in other states the job may be contracted out. the websites vary in their format, but almost all of them allow you to search for statutes by topic, by key word searches and by specific code numbers. if you do a lot of searching of your state’s legislation, you’ll undoubtedly become familiar with where that information is located. however, if you search now and then, you may forget where to go. Finally, the Cornell legal information institute [www.law.cornell.edu] is another incredibly helpful site that also offers links to state resources. it lets you search for statutes by topic of interest as well as by popular name. the topic of interest feature is under the “law by Source or jurisdiction” section of the Cornell website. See www.law.cornell.edu/states/listing.html.
The Cornell LII Index Is Not Exhaustive. Sometimes statutes within a particular category are found in different parts of a code and even in different codes. The LII topical index may get you to some of the statutes you seek but may miss other relevant statutes. Make sure you browse the statutes surrounding the particular statute pulled up in this topical search. Also, when possible, do a key word search of the entire code to pull up any additional statutes appearing in other parts. Be aware that if you do a similar search for a state other than the one we use in our exercise, the websites you encounter may operate a little differently than the ones we visited. But you’ll be well prepared after you’ve gone through our example, since it teaches you all you need to know to navigate slightly different waters.
Finding Recently-Enacted or Pending State Statutes
Recently-Enacted State Legislation
if your research involves a statute that is newly passed, repealed or amended, the changes may not yet be reflected in the pocket parts, which come out only once a year. Fortunately, most states have arranged for newly-passed statutes to be published prior to their inclusion in the pocket parts. these legisla tive update publications have different names in dif ferent states. Some examples are McKinney’s Session Law News of New York, Vernon’s Texas Session Law Services and Washington Legislative Services.Whatever their names, these publications are or ganized in pretty much the same way, and there are several ways to get to the statutes you seek. First, the statutes appear in numerical order according to the number given them by the state legislature. in many states, statutes appear according to their “chapter” number. (See the example below.) in others they are listed by “session law” number. if you already know which number statute you’re looking for, you can get to it directly.Another way to use the advance legislative service is by the annotated code or collection cita tion. if you know, for example, that labor Code § 560.5 has been amended, a table at the front or back of each legislative service volume will convert your “code” citation to the appropriate chapter number.Finally, all advance legislative services have a detailed alphabetical table of contents in the front and a cumulative subject index in the back. the exam ples below show the subject index of a texas advance legislative service for 1991.Advance legislative update services are usually located next to the annotated state statutes. if you can’t find them, ask the law librarian.
How to Find Pending State Legislation on the Internet
in most states, you can use the internet to read the text of pending state legislation and check on its status.
Pending State LegislationSearching for pending state legislation is a piece of cake on the internet. however, if for some reason you want to find hardcopy text of pending state legislation, here are some tips. if you want to examine a piece of legislation that is currently before your state legislature, probably the best way is to call your local elected representative’s office and ask for a copy of the bill. if you know what the bill concerns and, if possible, the legislator who is sponsoring it, you probably won’t need to know the number of the bill. however, if you want to use your local law library (or your public library if it is large enough to carry state legislative materials), follow these steps:• Determine the number of the bill—for example,Assembly Bill 27 or Senate Bill 538.• If you don’t know the bill’s number, find out whether the legislature prints a subject index to current legislation. if so, use the index. if not, call your elected representative’s office and ask for the number.
• Ask the reference librarian whether your legisla ture publishes a daily or weekly journal summa rizing current legislative activity. if it does, locate the listing for the bill by its number and determine its status. (For instance, is it still in com mittee, or has it passed both houses?) if there is no journal, ask your elected representative or the bill’s sponsor to find out the bill’s status. • Find out whether your local law library receives copies of the bills (called “slip laws”) as they are produced and amended. if so, locate the latest version of the bill and read it.
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