LibGuides: Ohio Primary Law Legal Research Guide: Updating Regulations & Finding Prior Regulations

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.

Finding Proposed/New Regulations

Common Sense Initiative

Common Sense Initiative
The Common Sense Initiative was established by Executive Order 2011-01K and placed within the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. Under the CSI, state agencies, including the Ohio Department of Taxation, are required to draft rules in collaboration with stakeholders, assess and justify any adverse impact on the business community and provide an opportunity for the affected public to provide input on the rules.
Oh. Rev. Code Sec. 107.56
Oh. Rev. Code Secs. 107.52-107.71 codify the Common Sense Iniattive
Ohio uses AI to eliminate unnecessary words in state administrative code
Axios Columbus 4/29/24

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 The letters indicate what happened to the regulation, for example, R-E means repealed and reenacted, RRD means the rule review date and A means amended.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:

Ohio Monthly Record (OMR)
KFO 35 .A23 O35 (Franklin County Law Library has the OMR from 1981-2000. Contains a rule number table and subject index.

Westlaw - Ohio Historical Regulations
Contains the OAC back to 2002. (If you pull up the Ohio Administrative Code, on the right side, you will see a link to Ohio Historical Regulations. )

Lexis Advance
Go to Browse Sources to find OH State Net Regulatory Text (text of proposed and final regulations, 2001-.)
OR
Prefilter for Administrative Codes and Regulations, Ohio. Your results will include Regulation Text (text of proposed and final regulations, 2001-.) You can postfilter by for just Regulation Text.

Regulations before 1977
See previous paragraph. Obtain from agency itself, local library, or State Library of Ohio. May be reproduced in older treatises.