1. Presented by: Jason P. Webb Barnes Dulac Watkins

2.  How and where to find information on: ◦ Statutes, Bills and Legislative History ◦ Regulations and Agencies ◦ Court Opinions, Forms, Rules and Dockets

3.  Attorneys are in the business of interpreting the law.  Depending on what information you have will determine the best way to locate the information you’re seeking  The baseline: google.com. This presentation is geared towards going to the source.

4.  Statutes, Bills and Legislative History

5.  A “statute” is enacted legislation. With respect to the federal government, a statute is legislation that has been passed by Congress and signed into law by the President (or by overriding veto).

6.  If you know the year of enactment you can search the Statutes at Large. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection tab.action http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection tab.action  Statutes at Large are a list of what laws were enacted during each two-year Congress.  Statutes at Large are maintained by the GPO (Government Printing Office) as part of FDsys (Fed’l Digital System)

8.  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwslli nk.html http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwslli nk.html

9.  If you have a citation, use Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (“LII”), Justia, or other meta-sites.  LII provides free access to the U.S. Code, an index of all federal law grouped by subject matter

11.  The House of Representatives maintains a searchable U.S. Code at http://uscode.house.gov/browse.xhtml http://uscode.house.gov/browse.xhtml

12.  First a word on Consolidated vs. Unconsolidated Statutes and P.S. vs. Pa.C.S.A  The general assembly’s website is versatile. ◦ Good search functionality ◦ Search by citation ◦ Search by year of enactment

14.  For local laws, go to the local government homepage: (sites.state.pa.us/govlocal.html)sites.state.pa.us/govlocal.html

15.  For legislative information for the City of Pittsburgh: (pittsburgh.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx(pittsburgh.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx)

16.  It was a bill.  There are thousands of bills that are introduced during each two-year Congress.  Approximately 5 percent of bills will be enacted into law.

17.  Go to Thomas, a free site maintained by the Library of Congress.

18.  Thomas is the template for the software used on Capitol Hill to track legislative action  It is updated frequently  It permits you to perform bill number, subject matter and text searches.  It provides text of all bills pending in Congress

19.  The Pennsylvania General Assembly is a good resource for past and current legislative information.  http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/ho me/bills/ http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/ho me/bills/

21.  Three main bases for Legislative History are: ◦ Committee Reports/ Conference Reports / Hearings ◦ Floor speeches / Debate / Sponsor Statements ◦ Presidential Signing Statements  Legislative History = U.S. Serial Set a.k.a Congress’ papers

22.  After being introduced, a bill is assigned to the committee responsible for the relevant subject matter.  A committee report provides a detailed overview of the legislation. It can include definitions, findings of fact, justification for action by Congress, as well as cost estimates.

23.  http://beta.congress.gov/congressional- reports/ http://beta.congress.gov/congressional- reports/

24.  Conference Reports are agreements between the House and Senate that are prepared to resolve differences in House- and Senate-passed legislation. http://beta.congress.gov/congressional-reports/  Older committee and conference reports are in the U.S. Serial Set available at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwss.html

25.  The Congressional Record is a daily transcription of what is said on the House and Senate floors.

26.  Committee Reports / Conference Reports  “Hearings are not published and in most situations committee reports are not distributed.” http://www.law.pitt.edu/library/paresearchstat utory  Instead – use legislative deliberations / debate

27.  Journals are available online for Pennsylvania’s General Assembly

28.  For older legislation, use A History of House and Senate Bills in conjunction with hard copies of the Journals.  For additional assistance tracking down a resource, call the Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau at 717-787-4816.

30.  All federal legislative information is available online for free beginning in the early 1990’s.  If what you want was published prior to that, you may need to get thee to the library.  There are six libraries in Pittsburgh that are repositories of federal materials ◦ CMU, Pitt, Pitt Law, Duq., LaRoche and Allegh. Cty Law Library

31.  Regulations and Agencies

32.  A regulation is agency policy making that has the force of law. A regulation is promulgated or made effective by a federal agency following notice and comment rulemaking.  Where to find a regulation depends on what you know.

33.  If you know the subject matter, go to www.regulations.gov. www.regulations.gov

34.  If you have a citation, you can go directly to the Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”)  Navigating the CFR without a cite can be daunting  Organization of CFR: ◦ Part ◦ Chapter ◦ Sub-Chapter ◦ Part __ (number) ◦ Sub-part _ (letter)

35.  The CFR is the administrative equivalent of the U.S. Code: www.ecfr.govwww.ecfr.gov

36.  The Pennsylvania Code is the Pennsylvania analog to the CFR. http://www.pacode.com/http://www.pacode.com/

37.  Sources: ◦ Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NRPM) ◦ Preamble to final rule ◦ Agency guidance on interpretation

38.  The Federal Register is a daily publication containing all official administrative actions taken by agencies of the federal government.

39.  Pennsylvania Bulletin is published on a weekly basis. http://www.pabulletin.comhttp://www.pabulletin.com

40.  Agency home pages are often very helpful in finding relevant regulatory history

43.  There are often informal statement of policy that will not be published in the federal register.

44.  Another valuable resource is guidance regarding the meaning of the regulation provided to its own employees.

45.  Court Opinions, Forms, Rules and Dockets

46.  Portals (meta-sites) ◦ One-stop-shopping ◦ Intended to quickly direct you to all the resources you are likely to want  Examples: ◦ Cornell Univ’s Legal Information Institute ◦ FindLaw ◦ Justia ◦ Washburn Univ's WashLaw.

47.  Use Google?  But, if you only know the parties, use Justia.com or plainsite.org

48.  Similarly, if you know the year of decision and the deciding court, you can use Justia.com

51.  The U.S. Courts maintains a great site, (www.uscourts.gov)www.uscourts.gov  Complete sets of Rules (Civil / Criminal / BKR / Appellate / Evidence / Local)

52.  Pacer.gov is a fed’l govt. site that provides access to dockets  www.recapthelaw.org: save yourself some dimes www.recapthelaw.org  Additionally, see plainsite.org, which provides detailed docket information

55.  Rules can be obtained at: Rules can be obtained at:  http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/231/23 1toc.html http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/231/23 1toc.html  Forms can be obtained at: Forms can be obtained at:  http://www.pacourts.us/forms/for-the- public http://www.pacourts.us/forms/for-the- public

56.  http://www.pacourts.us/forms/for-the- public http://www.pacourts.us/forms/for-the- public