Ohio Primary Law Legal Research Guide: Legislative History

Courts may or may not rely upon the legislative history documents. In Ohio, legislative history documents are not "of record", unlike federal legislative history, so they are not required to be retained. The weight given by courts to various types of legislative history documents is discussed with the Types of Legislative History of this guide. For more info see OJur3d Statutes, Sections 165-168.

The Ohio Legislative History database on Westlaw contains: Bill Analyses beginning in 1997-1998 through current session, Committee Synopses beginning in 2001-2002 through current session, Conference Committee Synopses beginning in 2001-2002 through current session, House Journals beginning in 2003-2004 through current session, Senate Journals beginning in 2005-2006 through current session, Governor's Messages beginning in 2000 through 2010 session, Bill Tracking: Summaries and status information concerning current OH legislation, Fiscal Notes, Committee Reports and Veto Messages from Netscan legislative history.

Sometimes the meaning of a statute is unclear. Legislative history documents may shed light on what the General Assembly intended when they passed legislation (legislative intent). Legislative history documents are materials issued when the bill was going through the legislative process. 

To identify legislative history documents for a particular Ohio Revised Code section, look at the History/Credits underneath the text of the statute in an annotated code.  Identify the Act (Session Law) you are interested in.

QUICK FIX:
For Acts 1997 and later, the Ohio General Assembly's webpage has many documents accessible.  The main legislative history documents in Ohio are bills and Session Laws, and Legislative Service Commission Analysis.

For more details, see additional pages in this guide:

Steps for Finding Legislative History

Types of Legislative History Documents

The links go to where these documents are available on the free web.  For information on how to find older documents and Lexis/Westlaw links, see Types of Legislative History Documents page in this guide.