Florida Administrative Law Research

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Florida Administrative Law Research

• Marin Dell Trisha Simonds
• Spring 2010

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Overview

• Florida Administrative Code (FAC) and Florida
  Administrative Weekly (FAW) contain agency rules
  and regulations.
• The Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH),
  appellate courts, and various agencies issue
  orders and opinions that are published in the
  Florida Administrative Law Reports (FALR).

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Authority for Florida Administrative Law

• Florida Statutes enabling statutes
• Florida Statutes Ch. 120, Administrative
  Procedure Act

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Florida Statutes

• Agencies are created by the legislature with an
  enabling statute.
• Enabling statutes set out the substantive law the
  agency is charged with applying and give the
  agency rulemaking authority in that area.
• Example Florida State Fair Authority
• Florida Statutes, Chapter 616.251

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Florida Administrative Code

• Since 1961, Florida has required that most
  administrative rules be published. (See Fla.
  Stat. 120.55)
• Florida Administrative Weekly) was first
  published in 1962.
• The Florida Administrative Code (FAC) was first
  published in 1963.
• The FAC and FAW are published by the Florida
  Department of State, Bureau of the Administrative
  Code and Administrative Weekly.

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• The FAC consists of 69 chapters.
• Chapters are frequently (but not always)
  subdivided by letters.
• Each rule within a chapter has a decimal number
  designation.
• Example Within Ch. 6 Dept. of Education, see
  Rule 6C2-3.045, College of Law Student Conduct
  Code.

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• For each rule there is
• a rule number
• a caption
• the text of the rule
• a note containing Specific Authority (enabling
  statutes) and History.
• History notes are especially useful if you need
  to locate an older version of a rule.

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flrules.org contains

• FAC (Word documents)
• FAW (PDF)

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WESTLAW

• The current code is at FL-ADC.
• The FAC, as of the end of 2004, is FL-ADC04
• 2005 version is FL-ADC05
• 2006 version is FL-ADC06
• 2007 version is FL-ADC07
• 2008 version is FL-ADC08

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LEXIS

• The current Florida Administrative Code Annotated
  is at FLREGS. It is updated regularly.
• Both Westlaw and Lexis include history and
  transfer information in their notes on repealed
  and transferred rules.

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Florida Administrative Weekly

• The Florida Administrative Code (FAC) is a
  snapshot of the administrative rules at a given
  moment in time.
• Florida Administrative Weekly (FAW) shows the
  rules changing over time.

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• The FAW contains the text of proposed rules.
• It also contains
• Notices that an agency is beginning the
  rulemaking process
• Notices of changes to proposed rules
• Announcements of public meetings
• Notices regarding state contracting and
  purchasing, with contact information
• Other miscellaneous items

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FAW Indexing

• FAW has an index (by agency name) to rules filed
  during the preceding week and a List of Rules
  Affected.
• FAW is published weekly, but the List of Rules
  Affected is only published in the first issue of
  each month. It covers rule changes proposed
  during the preceding 8 weeks.

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• LEXIS and WESTLAW
• Lexis (but not Westlaw) has a database containing
  the Florida Administrative Weekly (FAW).
  Filename FLREGS
• Both Lexis and Westlaw include privately-created
  regulation tracking databases that cover
  Florida.
• Lexis FLRGTR
• Westlaw FL-REGTRK and FL-REGTXT

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For More Information

• Florida Legal Research Sources, Process, and
  Analysis (3rd Ed.)
• by Barbara J. Busharis
• Law Library KFF 75 .R69 2007
• Guide To Florida Legal Research
• by Betsy L. Stupski
• Law Library KFF 75 .B7 2008

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• Thanks for coming!