Statutes are the laws promulgated by the state legislature. Florida Statutes are codified and printed every year. Sets of the Florida Statutes can be found in the Florida section on the upper level or online at http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes. Additional sets can be found at Circulation, Reference and in the Photocopy Room.

Index

1. Use the current index volume of Florida Statutes to guide you to the type of law, legal situation, etc. you are researching.
2. When searching the index, remember these tips:
   • Look up the main subject, not the secondary subject. Examples: For attorney fees, look under attorneys at law NOT fees. For motor vehicle registration, look under motor vehicles NOT registration.
   • Look for the noun and not the adjective. Examples: For foreign companies, look under companies NOT foreign. For life insurance, look under insurance NOT life.
   • Look up related headings. If your research under one heading is fruitless, try another related heading.
   • Make full use of cross references.
3. Also contained in the same index volume as the subject index are the following: the short title or name of act index, the Florida Constitution, the United States Constitution, a tracing table from session law numbers to statute numbers, a tracing table from the 1885 Florida Constitution to statute numbers, a table of repealed and transferred sections, and the most recent decennial census.

Looking up the Statute

1. Once you find the subject heading(s) that pertains to your legal research, a cite will be given to a section of the Florida Statutes. For example:
   • STATE SYMBOLS Marine mammal 15.038
   • The cite 15.038 refers you to chapter 15.038.
   • Numbers preceded by "A" followed by "S" and another number, are referring to the Florida Constitution.
2. To find chapter 15.038, look at the spines of the statute volumes. For example, volume 1 of Florida Statutes 1989 contains chapters 1-246.
3. Because laws change, the statutes are updated each year. Always check the updated supplement. Find your cite in the supplement. Check the front of the volume for the table of repealed and transferred statutes. If changes have been made to the law, your cite will be published in the supplement as it currently reads in the law. If your cite has not changed, it will not be found in the supplement (if there isn't a supplement, check with library personnel.)

Florida Statutes Annotated (FSA)

FSA, published by West provide additional treatment for locating statutes and continuing with your research. The library retains superseded sets for historical research purposes. If you are wanting to research the current law, make sure there is NOT a green "superseded" label on the top of the spine. FSA is kept current through pocket parts in the back of the volume, or in a supplementary pamphlet. Be sure to update your research by checking the pocket part.

Location Helpers

1. The index in FSA is much more extensive than that in the official Statutes. If your search of the Statute index volume was fruitless, check the FSA index.
2. Numerical and alphabetical tables of the chapters are included in volume one of FSA.
3. "Popular" in the index lists the laws that are known by a given name - same as the Short Title index in the Florida Statutes.

Research Helpers

1. History and source of law information is given at the end of the statutory section.
2. Cross references to related statutes are also presented.
3. Citations to Corpus Juris Secundum and West key digest numbers are given.
4. "Annotations" - brief summaries of judicial interpretation - are set out with the citation to the case in a court reporter.