Legislative Intent Research Issues

Q. I utilized the bill search engine and cannot locate the bill(s) that interest me. What do I do next?

A. Over the course of 30 years, we have accrued materials for tens of thousands of bills. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to post all of them online in a short time frame. Simply call us at 800-666-1917, and we can furnish you with the relevant bill materials via net posting, CD, or hardcopy.

Q. What are the time frames for research and the fees associated?

A. The navigational button on the left, entitled "Fees," should contains this information. Or, click here.

Q. Will you give a quote before beginning work?

A. Yes!. Speak with one of our attorneys at 1-800-666-1917 to discuss your section and language focus. Never hesitate to call us!

Q. Who uses this service?

A. Attorneys, courts, law librarians, paralegals, historians, researchers, lobbyists and reporters, just to name a few.

Q. What do I get when I order the legislative history of a state statute?

A. The types of materials we collect for each bill ordered includes every amended version of the bill, its final history, all surviving legislative committees’ analyses and their legislative bill files, the author’s and/or sponsor’s legislative bill files, the Governor’s post-enrollment bill file, and any other related legislative committee file that may have been generated on the bill. We look for predecessor and competitor bills since the legislative history of the enacting bill would naturally include those earlier or contemporaneous failed attempts. We also provide state agency reports and interim committee reports and studies that may have generated the bill or the section language of interest. We have developed a system for researching legislation coming from different time periods, from the 19th Century through this 21st Century, so that we can efficiently and quickly provide you with whatever surviving materials are out there.

Q. What else do I get besides these materials to help me make sense of them?

A. Our legislative materials will include, without additional charge, our objective report on the history of the bill ordered, perhaps with a focus on your code section. This report is intended to serve two functions. The first is to assure the thoroughness of our research, noting sources such as competitor and predecessor bills as well as studies and hearings or model language. The second function is as a guide to the reader through the legislative history of the bill in question. When there is a section or issue focus, we also try to point to discussions in the materials that may be relevant. There will also be a declaration that serves as a first step towards authenticating the legislative history materials that we have gathered on the bill. Many of our clients also find this declaration to be useful when offering the legislative history materials as evidence. There will also be points and authorities on the use of legislative history materials as extrinsic aides in court. At this time, Legislative Intent Service has been cited in over 50 published court opinions rendered by the California Supreme and Appellate Courts.

Q. What do you provide that I can’t get at California’s www.leginfo.ca.gov?

A. There is not a lot on this legislative website. The website currently includes from 1993 forward most of the analyses, every bill version, and a bill history. We provide the remaining Legislative committees’ analyses not lodged on that website, all surviving legislative committees’ analyses and their legislative bill files, the author’s and/or sponsor’s legislative bill files, the Governor’s post-enrollment bill file, and any other related legislative committee file that may have been generated on the bill. None of these materials are on that website. Also not on that website that we look for are predecessor and competitor bills from which the language of interest to you may have developed as well as any relevant state agency reports and interim committee reports and studies that may have generated the bill or the section language of interest. Finally, we would be the resource to provide the surviving legislative history materials for all bills predating 1993.

Q. I’ve spent all day at the county law library researching. What more can you do?

A. Over our 30 years researching legislative history, we have developed an excellent capacity to search out file materials directly from the Legislative Committees, or from the State Archives and the State Law Library, as well as any out-of-the-area facilities, such as libraries at Stanford, California State University or University of California, for file materials lodged by the author or sponsor of your bill. In most cases, the county law library has the annotated code books, the Statutes at Large, Final Histories and Table of Sections Affected, and, in a few cases, the bills themselves. In addition to not having any of the legislative, gubernatorial, and author/sponsor bill file materials discussed above, the county libraries also do not have the resource capacity to trace statutory language to determine if your research focus was generated by an earlier or competitor failed bill.

Q. Do I need to research all 20 enactments in the history of my section?

A. Since we bill by the number of bills ordered for research, our clients have been able to minimize their research fees by focusing on a subdivision or a term or a phrase that is the focus of their research. Once they have identified their focus, we will trace that language to provide only the most relevant bill or bills affecting that particular language focus. If a client is interested in the complete legislative history of a particular section, we are happy to provide the legislative history for all of the bills affecting the section, whether substantively and technically. By ordering the complete substantive legislative history, instead, the client would receive bills that substantively affected the section language and avoid reviewing and paying for the research of code maintenance, major revisions or codification bills that, at best, merely enacted technical changes to the language and did not affect the section substantively.

Q. How do I give these documents to the court?

A. You will find the answer here.

Q. Will there be discussion of my section, subdivision, clause, phrase, word, or sentence in the materials?

A. We cannot promise that the Legislature discussed your particular section, subdivision, clause, phrase, word or sentence. Whenever possible, we will in our report point you to discussion in the materials collected regarding your language of interest. We are an objective legal research firm and cannot provide a legal opinion one way or another regarding your research issue. However, even if we are unable to locate specific discussion regarding your language of interest, your own more careful review of the documents may reveal helpful discussion on the issue before you. If not, you should be able to draw some conclusions based upon the assumption that the language of interest to you being added or amended by the bill in question was intended to be consistent with the overall goal of that particular legislation. Whenever you are unable to find specific discussion regarding your research question, the analyses contained in the Legislative Committees’ bill files, the Governor’s post-enrollment file, and the author’s file on the bill may provide you with an arguable assessment of the goals and purpose that you could apply to your particular situation.

Q. Do you do federal research?

A. Yes! Click here for more information.

Q. What download times can I expect?

A. This depends on whether your company uses DSL, cable, ISDN, or dial-up. A broadband connection should enable downloading at 400 pages/minute. Therefore, expect about a 1.5 minute wait for a 500 page document and less than 4 minutes for a 1000 page document. Dial-up customers should anticipate significantly longer times. If this describes your situation, another option is to burn your case onto a CD.

Q. What software will I need to view the legislative materials?

A. You will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free at Adobe's Website. Be sure to download the version of Acrobat that correlates to your operating system.

Q. I reached the download page, right-clicked to save the document(s) to my computer, and the download will not start? What is wrong?

A. We test each link to ensure that your PDF documents are downloadable. If you encounter problems, it is a strong possibility that your company has filters which prevent the downloading of certain materials. We encourage you to speak with your in-house IT department to see if they can download the files for you.

Q. On Friday, I submitted payment for legislative materials that were not yet available online. I also asked for a one (or two) day turnaround. Why have I not received my materials?

A. Our office is closed on Saturday and Sunday. Accordingly, your files will be transmitted to you on Monday, at the earliest.

Q. I made my purchase, logged onto store.legintent.com, and my download link does not work. How do I fix this?

A. For technical assistance in downloading your file, please call our web host, DW Alliance, at 510-903-0644. For questions about your bill materials, please call our office.

Q. Are Bill and Tom still around?

A. Indeed they are! Click here for more information about them.