Ohio Primary Law Legal Research Guide: Updating a Statute

"Current" Ohio Revised Codes in print are only as current as the latest volume or pocket part. Electronic versions are only as current as the last time the database was updated, although Lexis and Westlaw appear to update their online ORCs quickly.

How can you tell how up to date a pocket part or online code is? Click on the “i” next to the database name in Westlaw or Lexis, or click on “currentness” when you are in a code section.  Look at the cover of the pocket part.

Also, underneath the text of the statutes in the Ohio Revised Code Annotated, there is a HISTORY section, which lists the Session Laws enacting or updating that code section. The history section indicates the last session law incorporated into that ORC section.

The History Section for ORC Sec. 5145.15. looks like this:

To see if an Ohio Revised Code Section has been amended, repealed or added since the last update of the Code, you must look at the Session Laws for the current General Assembly. 

If you are using the Ohio Revised Code on the internet through Legislative Services Commission, it will be up to date within one month. You can look at the Ohio Acts page on the General Assembly's webpage to see if a newly enacted law affects your code section.

You can search the Session laws electronically for the Ohio Revised Code Section number or for keywords: 

• Westlaw - Ohio Enacted Legislation

You can also try an electronic search in the Legislative Information Search on the Ohio General Assembly's webpage, but note that this database includes bills that did not pass, as well as bills that passed.

• The following print resources (pictured in the box to the right) contain tables of Ohio Revised Code Sections affected by new session laws, as well as subject indexes:
  • Pages Ohio Revised Code Annotated Bulletin KFO 15 .A2
  • Baldwin's Ohio Legislative Service Annotated KFO 15 .B34

• In the Ohio Revised Code on Westlaw, Keycite flags indicate whether legislation is pending.

If the researcher finds a General Code section in an old case, a correlation table will identify where this section was codified in the Ohio Revised Code.  There are also tables showing the corresponding sections in the General Code and the Revised Statutes.

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Keycite the statute on Westlaw. If the Keycite yields a case holding the statute unconstitutional, read the case to determine whether the entire statute, or just a part was held unconstitutional.