A statute is a written law enacted by a legislature. The statutes you will deal with most frequently in United States law are federal and state statutes. There are also local (i.e., city or county) statutes, usually called ordinances.
When a bill is passed by the legislature, a statute is issued in a form called a slip law. The slip laws of a session of the legislature are collected in a chronological publication known as session laws. Finally, the laws are arranged by subject in a code. Codes are kept up-to-date in print by pocket parts and supplements. The U.S. Code and many state codes are updated within 48 hours online. There are both federal and state versions of slip laws, session laws, and codes, though they may go by different names in different jurisdictions.
Federal laws are issued by Congress in "slip law" form immediately after they become law, and immediately after they are passed by Congress, they are made available on Lexis and Westlaw. After the slip laws are issued, the laws of each session of Congress are printed together in volumes called "session laws." Finally, federal statutes are officially "codified" (meaning they are compiled and arranged by subject) in the United States Code (U.S.C.).
The U.S Code is organized into 54 broad topics, called titles. Federal statutes are identified by their title and section number. For example, 29 U.S.C. § 2612 is the code section for a federal statute that requires that employees be given leave under certain circumstances pursuant to the Family Medical Leave Act. "29" stands for title 29, which are the labor statutes, and "2612" is the section within that title.
There are three major publications for the U.S. Code:
State laws are available on Lexis and Westlaw shortly after they are passed by the state legislature.
In addition, most states have recent session laws and the state codes on the web. For example, you can locate them through the Legal Information Institute's listing of state laws by jurisdiction. However, this approach is best if you already have either a citation or some exact language from the statute.
For Online Resources:
Ohio
Fifty-state surveys track a single topic across the statutes (or regulations) of all 50 states. They usually take the form of a state-by-state table or chart containing the citations to the laws on the given topic in each state, but generally contain little-to-no analysis. A 50-State Survey will not be available for all topics, but, if there is one, it can serve as a valuable starting point when conducting multi-jurisdictional research on a topic. Check each of the below sources to see if there is a 50-state-survey already compiled for your topic. (Note the date of any 50-state-surveys you find; some updating may be required.)
Under Content Type, go to Secondary Sources, and then 50-State-Surveys. You can also find "Jurisdictional Surveys" listed under the "Tools" tab.
Begin to type "50 State Surveys…" and select "LexisNexis® 50-State Surveys, Statutes & Regulations" when it appears below in suggested results.
Check the "National Survey of State Laws" and the "Subject Compilation of State Laws."
Note that you can sometimes find multi-state surveys or multi-state issue-trackers online. For example, the National Conference of State Legislatures also often has multi-state surveys for statutes or legislation (bill-tracking, etc.) on select topics.
The following is a list of places to check if looking for the codes, ordinances, bylaws, or measures of a specific locality or municipality.
A three-part citation format tells you where to find a statute in the code for your jurisdiction:
| Title Number | Name of Code | Section Number |
| 42 | U.S.C. | § 1983 |
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