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Ohio Primary Law Legal Research Guide

Guide based on Cleveland-Marshall's Ohio Primary Law Research Guide.Covers Ohio cases, statutes, legislative history, regulations, and administrative decisions.

Updating a Regulation in the Ohio Administrative Code

Step One:  Keycite or Shepardize to see if the regulation was held unconstitutional or otherwise invalid by a court

Step Two:  Find any new regulations changing, adding, or repealing regulations. 

Tracking Proposed/New Regulations:

Do a Westlaw or Lexis Alert  in the Ohio Monthly Record or Register of Ohio database.  Or, create an alert in Bloomberg for a search of the Ohio Rulemaking database.

-or-

Set up a WatchThatPage on the Register of Ohio site or an agency site. (Free option)

Finding Prior Regulations

In the current Ohio Administrative Code, after the text of the code section, you will see a "history" or "credit" section. Here is a typical example:

History for Ohio Admin. Code 3770:1-2-01 Authority of the [lottery] commission:

HISTORY: 2003-04 OMR 2143 (R-E), eff. 2-13-04; 1999-2000 OMR 951 (RRD); 1996-97 OMR 1125 (A), eff. 12-27-96; 1992-93 OMR 1301 (A), eff. 5-27-93; 1979-80 OMR 4-182 (A), eff. 9-10-79; prior OLC 2.1

The citations in this history section indicate the year and page number of the Ohio Monthly Record (OMR) where you can find prior versions of the regulation. The letters indicate what happened to the regulation, for example, R-E means repealed and reenacted, RRD means the rule review date and A means amended. There is a table of abbreviation meanings in the first volume of the Ohio Administrative Code.

Note that the last citation, "prior OLC 2.1", does not have an "OMR" cite.  That is because the regulation was issued before the Ohio Administrative Code was created in 1977.  Pre-1977 regulations can be obtained from the agency itself. Area libraries may also have some of these old regulations.  The State Library of Ohio (part of Ohiolink) has the most complete collection of pre-1977 regulations.

Places to find prior OAC regulations:

Finding Proposed/New Regulations

Here are some sources to find newly adopted regulations and proposed regulations: