Documenting Florida Legislative Intent

Other Research Tips

Gathering legislative history materials for Federal laws is fairly easy, but the process is more difficult for Florida laws.   For example, many committee records are only available on audiotapes stored in Tallahassee - without transcripts. The following resources may help get you started.

Online Sunshine provides the bill citator for pending legislation and some legislation from recent years, plus some staff analyses and committee reports.  The citator identifies the status of each bill and provides references to the House or Senate journal.  The citator may also help you determine when specific committees may have taken action on a bill.

The citator information is available at UCF for previous years in Final Legislative Bill Information for 1988-2001 [FLA DOC LEG.D3:H49/ ] and in History of Legislation for 1975-1987 [FLA DOC LEG.D2:H49/ ].

Search the Florida Documents Index to identify staff analyses and committee reports which may be available in the UCF Florida Documents Collection, primarily at LEG.B2 (House) and LEG.C2 (Senate).

Legislative Research at the Florida State Archives provides useful information about the research process and some of the possible problems a researcher might encounter.

Guide to Florida Legislative Publications and Information Resources [REF KFF20.F63 1990] provides useful information about the types of materials available.

Florida Legislative Staff Analysis (1988-1996) - available in a microfiche set in the Law Collection at the Orlando Public Library.

"The Search for Intent: Aids to Statutory Construction in Florida - An Update" by Robert M. Rhodes and Susan Seereiter, Florida State University Law Review, vol. 13, pages 485-514, 1985. (Available bound in the General Collection K6.L675 or through LexisNexis Academic). 13 Fla.St.U.L. Rev. 485

Florida Legislative Histories: A Practical Guide to Their Preparation and Use by Carol Roehrenbeck, D&S Publishers, 1986, is available in the Law Collection at the Orlando Public Library, but is out-of-print and is not available at UCF.

Other Guides:

    Guide to Florida Legislative History (Univ of Florida College of Law)

    Florida Legislative History Research (Univ of Miami Law Library)

Looking for something else? Ask for assistance at the UCF Library's Reference Desk or contact UCF's Ask A Librarian.

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Prepared by:  Rich Gause, Government Documents Librarian
URL of this page: http://library.ucf.edu/govdocs/training/flaleghist.asp

Last update:05/05/09 03:19:52 PM

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