Legal Research for the Legal Assistant:

How to Find Regulations(Federal & New York)

Janice E. Henderson, Esq., M.L.S.

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Federal Executive Branch

Regulations are promulgated by government agencies to enforce particular statutes under their jurisdiction.

The agencies role is to provide procedures for implementation and enforcement of statutes under their jurisdiction.

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Where to Find RegulationsFederal Register – Daily Code of Federal Regulations -

Annual

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Where to Find RegulationsFederal Register

The official daily publication for rules and regulations, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.

Abbreviated as FR

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Federal RegisterWhere to Find It Free

Official Website: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html (From 1994)

National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/

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Federal RegisterProposed Rules

A proposed rule notifies the public of a pending Regulation.

Before a rule is finalized there has to be a comment period.

The comment period varies, but it usually is 30, 60, or 90 days.

Proposed rules are indicated by Action: Proposed.

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Federal RegisterFinal Rules

Once a rule is finalized it will be indicated under Action: Final Rule.

When agencies publish final regulations in the Federal Register, they must address the significant issues raised in comments and discuss any changes made in response to them. Agencies also may use the notice and comment process to stay in contact with constituents and to solicit their views on various policy and program issues.

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Federal RegisterThe Proposed and Final Rules are printed with the following information including the full text of the rule:

Proposed Rules Final RulesAgency Requesting Rule Agency that Requested the

RuleTitle TitleCFR Citation CFR CitationRelease Number(s) U.S. Code Authority Action: Proposed Rule Action: Final RuleDate for comments to be received

Date Rule becomes effective

Summary SummaryContact Information (including agency person & phone number)

Contact Information (including agency person & phone number)

Supplemental Information Supplemental Information

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Federal RegisterAdditional Sources

Fee-based databases:LexisNexis: GENFED; FEDREG (From July1980) &

Lexis AdvanceWestlaw: FR (From 1981); FR-OLD (1936-2000) &

WestlawNextHeinOnline: http://heinonline.org/HOL/Welcome

This is a fee based database. (From 1936)

Free website:Regulations.gov: Was launched in January 2003 to

provide citizens with one-stop Web access to all proposed federal regulations and to give citizens the ability to submit comments on all federal agencies' rulemakings.

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Code of Federal RegulationAbbreviated as CFR. It’s a codification of the general and

permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. Each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis.

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Code of Federal RegulationUpdating Schedule

Each title is updated once per yearaccording to the following

schedule:Titles 1-16 are updated as of

January 1st Titles 17-27 are updated as of

April 1st Titles 28-41 are updated as of

July 1st Titles 42-50 are updated as of

October 1st

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Code of Federal RegulationWhere to Find

Official Websites: ◦ GPO Access:

http://origin.www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/ ◦ National Archives:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html#page1

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR): http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&tpl=%2Findex.tpl

United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.)United States Code Service (U.S.C.S. )HeinOnline: http://heinonline.org/HOL/Welcome LexisNexis: GENFED; CFR & Lexis AdvanceWestlaw: CFR & WestlawNextBloombergLaw

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Code of Federal RegulationWhere to Find

Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders◦ Date Range: April 13, 1945 to January 20,

1989 ◦ http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/co

dification/

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents◦ Date Range: 1993 to current◦ http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/index.ht

ml

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Code of Federal RegulationsUpdating

List of CFR Sections Affected: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/lsa/index.html The ‘List of CFR Sections Affected’ lists proposed, new, and amended Federal regulations that have been published in the Federal Register since the most recent revision date of a CFR title.◦ Published monthly.◦ ‘List of Sections Affected’ (LSA) is

published daily in the Federal Register.

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New York State RegulationsNew York State Register – Daily

◦ http://www.dos.state.ny.us/info/register.htm ◦ Searchable starting in 2007. PDF copies go back

to 2003. ◦ Not all rules are published in full text. For those

that are not, the agency requesting the rule should be contacted.

Official Compilation of Codes Rules and Regulations of the State of New York (NYCRR)◦ http://www.dos.ny.gov/info/nycrr.html◦ This is a link to an unofficial searchable database

to the NYCRR powered by Westlaw (free): http://government.westlaw.com/linkedslice/default.asp?SP=nycrr-1000

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New York City RegulationsThe Official Compilation of the Rules of the

City of NY http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycrules/html/home/home.shtml

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New York State & CityAdditional Sources

New York State Register◦ LexisNexis: NY; NYRGST (From December 1997)

& Lexis Advance ◦ Westlaw: NY-ADR (From July 1997)

Official Compilation of Codes Rules and Regulations of the State of New York (NYCRR)◦ LexisNexis: NY; NYADMN & Lexis Advance◦ LexisNexis: Archive from 2004 ed. – NY;

NYADAR◦ Westlaw: NY-ADC & WestlawNext

The Official Compilation of the Rules of the City of NY◦ LexisNexis: NY; NYCMUN & Lexis Advance◦ Westlaw: NYC-CODE & WestlawNext

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New York State & CityRegulation Alert Resources

RegAlert - New York Documents:◦ LexisNexis: NY; RGALRT & Lexis Advance◦ Contains the full text of proposed regulations

from most of the 50 states, and the full text of final regulations.

New York State Regulation Tracking: ◦ LexisNexis: NY; NYRGTR & Lexis Advance◦ Contains summaries of proposed regulations

and status actions for individual regulations promulgated by various state agencies.

Westlaw: NY-REGTRK & WestlawNext

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The End