Statutory Research Basics

The Consolidated Laws of New York

• New York State Senate
  • Free online resource.
  • The Code is unannotated, not searchable.
  • Navigate by clicking on the subject then through title sections. 
• McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated
  • Available through Westlaw.
  • Click on the tab, "State Materials" located under the search bar on the main page. Then click "New York." Scroll down then click "Statutes & Court Rules." You can browse the sections for this page, use the search bar, or click on the index or popular name table on the right hand column.
  • Once you're at the New York Statutes & Court Rules page, under "Tools & Resources," on the right hand side of the page. You can find links to search historical statutes, bill tracking, the unannotated code, legislative history and bill jackets for New York statutes.
• New York Consolidated Laws Service: Annotated Statutes with Forms
  • Available through Lexis.
  • Click "State" under the search bar on the home page, then select "New York." Under the section "Statutes and Legislation," select "NY - New York Consolidated Laws Service". You can click "NY - New York Consolidated Laws Service - Index" in the same section to look through the index. 
  • Also contains bill tracking reports and full text bills. 

Bloomberg Law - New York Legislative Materials

Bloomberg provides access to a variety of different New York legislative materials.  Their version of the code is unannotated.

From the main Start page, in the "Getting Started" box, click on the link for "State Law" resources.  From there, click on New York State on the map.  At the "New York" page, click on the link for "N.Y. Legislative." 

From there, you can access the New York Consolidated Laws, as well as many other links to New York legislative materials. When using the New York Consolidated Laws, you can either click the link to the topic in the Code in which you wish to search, or search by keyword.

Other State Laws

If you're looking for the text of a State's current laws, you can often find links to free digital versions at the State's official website.  

• The Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII)
  • List of links for the laws of all fifty states. Click on the link to the State that you are researching, and it will take you to the State page, which includes a direct link to the State's Constitution, its current statutes and code, pending bills, and other important State government documents.
• Bloomberg Law 
  • Bloomberg has unannotated codes for all 50 U.S. States and Territories. 
  • Click the "Laws & Regulations" tab beneath the search bar, then select "State Laws & Regulations" from the drop down menu. It will bring you to a map of the country. Click the state you wish to browse. 
  • Once on the page for that state, click on the state's code to search or click the "T.O.C." button to view the table of contents.

Other Annotated Codes

Annotated Codes for all fifty states can be found on both Lexis and Westlaw, but you need a subscription.

Lexis:

• Click "State" under the search bar on the home page, then select the state you want to browse. From that page scroll down then click the section that contains the Statutes or State Code.
• You can also click the link, "Statutes & Legislation" under content beneath the search bar on the Lexis main page. From that page, click the link for the state you wish to browse, then click the link to the topic in the Code in which you wish to search.

Westlaw:

• Click on the tab, "State Materials" located under the search bar on the main page. Then click whatever state you are interested in. From that page scroll down then click the section that contains the Statutes or State Code. 
• You can also click the link, "Statutes & Court Rules" on the Westlaw main page. From that page, click the link for the state you wish to browse, then click the link to the topic in the Code in which you wish to search.

Hein Online

Hein Online has three different databases that might be helpful in your statutory research. You must have a subscription to use these databases.

• Digital Session Laws Library
  • This collection provides online access to the session laws of all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.  It is updated regularly. The collection also contains older session laws as well.
• State Statutes: A Historical Archive - States
  • This collection provides digital access to books, resources, and bibliographies that constitute historical records of state laws dating back to the State's establishment. Use this to search for compilations of state statutes from a particular time period.
• Subject Compilations of State Laws (1960-2018) 
  • Hein Online provides online access to Cheryl Nyberg’s Subject Compilations of State Laws, which is a bibliography of legal publications, such as law review articles, books, court briefs and opinions, federal and state government publications, loose-leaf services and websites, arranged by legal topic. You can use it to search for surveys and studies of a particular state's laws or multi-state legislation on a given topic.