Search Session Laws

A basic search requires only one field to be filled in, but you may

• Enter a Chapter Number
• Select a specific Type, either Act or Resolve from the dropdown,
• Choose to narrow your search to a specific Year.

Each bill that becomes law is given a chapter number based on the chronological order in which it was adopted. These chapters are called Session Laws and are compiled on an annual basis. The majority of Session Laws are Acts. Acts include everything from  annual state budget and major legislative initiatives to reorganization of government agencies. Special Acts and include matters affecting an individual or a particular city or town. A Resolve is most often used when the legislation's only purpose is to establish a special commission to investigate a certain issue.

Click on a result to view its details (whole result highlights in blue when you hover), or you may browse to one of the Chapters or Acts  on the left side of the results table (in the "Found In" column).

Refining and Filtering: Pare the results down using the refiners on the left panel of the Search Results page. The results present all results by default. Narrow down results by checking the checkboxes (the number of results for each type are shown at right of the checkbox and label). If a refiner set has more than 5 refiners available, you can choose more refiners by clicking the "Show More Refinements" link, and a dialogue box will pop over the results page. Clicking a refiner replaces the original results with only the results from the checked refiners (note: checking all refiners is the same as getting the whole original result set). Get back to the original set of results by clicking the Reset "X" icon.

Keyword Search Tips

• To find either horse OR bicycle (or both, not necessarily together as a phrase) simply separate words by spaces, or type this: horse OR bicycle )
• To find both elementary AND education in the same result, type: elementary AND education
• To get results with the exact phrase higher education use quotes to surround the phrase, as in: "higher education"
• To search for taxi but not return results that also have taxicabs or licenses, use: taxi NOT taxicabs NOT license (or simplify as: taxi -taxicabs -licenses)

You may also browse the Sesison Laws by clicking on one of the Acts or Resolves links.