NYS+Statutory+Materials

=New York State Statutory Materials=

__**VOCABULARY**

Bills__: proposed statutes. Introduced into Senate or Assembly

__Chapter laws__: when a bill becomes a law.

__Slip laws__: separately published chapter laws. Each chapter law is designated by a number. Example, ch.10 is the 10th bill to become law in a legislative session.

__Session laws__: organization of new chapter laws by number. Arranged chronologically by date of passage.

__Unconsolidated laws__: laws that are passed by the Legislature but not part of the consolidated laws. They include Court Acts, NYC Charter and Administrative Code, and others. They are still considered “law” even though not included with the consolidated laws.

__**QUICK FACTS**__
 * Consolidated Laws of NY were enacted in 1909/10. Re-enacted all live, permanent laws enacted since 1777.
 * New York does not have a current, official version of its statutes.
 * “Certified as official” versions of the statutes: under Public Officers Law §70-b. Certifying officials are temporary President of the Senate and Speaker of the Assembly.
 * __See__ //Gibson’s New York Legal Research Guide//, Chap. 3, State Legislation: Revisions and Compilations of New York Legislation from 1638-1950 for a good overview of NY laws.


 * __WHERE TO FIND CONSOLIDATED LAWS__**

__Laws of New York__: Contains the free version of the NYS Statutes from the public legislative website. It is identical to the version on the Legislative Retrieval System (LRS). Website organization: consolidated laws, unconsolidated laws, court acts, rules, and miscellaneous. Can search by words and phrase.

__McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated (McKinney’s) = West__
 * Official and certified.
 * Has a General Index, Popular Name Table, Notes of Decisions, Historical Notes
 * Practice Commentaries
 * Citation to McKinney’s Forms (not included with McKinney’s Consolidated Laws)
 * West Topic and KeyNumber references
 * References to NYCRR
 * Pocket Parts

__New York Consolidated Laws Service (CLS) = Lexis__
 * Official and certified.
 * Has a General Index. Popular Names Table
 * References to jury instructions
 * References to NYCRR
 * Forms included in the statutory text


 * __WHERE TO FIND UNCONSOLIDATED LAWS__**
 * Both McKinney’s and CLS have volumes where unconsolidated laws can be found.
 * __Bear in mind__: not all “laws” either consolidated or unconsolidated are included in McKinney’s or CLS. The editors select which laws to include in the unconsolidated law volumes.
 * If not in the unconsolidated laws: check McKinney’s Session Laws of New York.
 * __Public Legislative site__under Unconsolidated Laws


 * __HOW TO FIND CONSOLIDATED LAWS__**
 * If you don’t have a citation, you will need to look in the indexes by subject.
 * If you know the popular name of a law, for example, Lemon Law, look in the Popular Names index.
 * If you have a chapter and legislative year: look at the session law in McKinney’s Session Laws of New York to determine where the chapter law is going to be added in the Consolidated Laws.
 * If all else fails: you can always look in a secondary source like //NY Jurisprudence// or //Carmody-Wait//.


 * __MISCELLANEOUS__**
 * Update a citation using either Shepards or Keycite
 * Check Credits and Statutory and Historical Notes for legislative history research.
 * Most statutes begin with a definition section—check it if confused about a word.
 * Check pocket part or paper supplement for updates.
 * Check //McKinney’s Statutes// volume (1st on shelf) for a good discussion on statutes.