Appellate Division Law Library

Legislative history tips

We had occasion this week to compile a guide to doing legislative history for some new court staff.
We hope others may also find it handy.

 Legislative History Tips
Identify the chapter or section to be researched.

Consult the latest McKinney’s/CLS for historical notes for the year and chapter of the legislation and references to other documents.

Consult McKinney’s/CLS Session Laws for the law as it was sent to the governor for signing and the McKinney’s Session Laws for its accompanying legislative memorandum.

Check the governor’s bill jackets for memoranda using the year and chapter of the law in the 2nd floor microfiche collection. Governor’s bill jackets from 1995 to 2012 are also available at: http://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/Collection/Show/collection_id/3723.

See the New York State Legislative Annual as well as the New York State Legislative Digest on the balcony for additional information.

Check http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/ for summaries, actions taken, votes, memoranda, or text of the bill itself.

For assistance contact a librarian at 585-530-3251 or ad4ref@nycourts.gov, or stop by the reference desk.