Bills are proposed laws.
Codified laws are a topical arrangement of the laws currently in force. The United States Code is the official codification of the laws passed by the federal Congress whereas the New Mexico Statutes Annotated is the official codification of New Mexico's laws.
Session Laws are a collection of the laws passed in a particular legislative session, in the order they were passed.
Statutes are laws enacted by legislative bodies.
By Citation
Using the search box at the top of the screen, enter the citation.
If you don't know the citation format for the statute, click on Statutes & Court Rules then pick your jurisdiction. Once in the table of contents/search page for that jurisdiction's statutes, look at the blue box all the way on the right side of the screen and click on the Find Template. Enter the citation numbers and you will be taken directly to the statute.
By Keyword
Table of Contents. Click on this button, located in the banner just below the tabs, to see where your statute falls within the table of contents. This provides context for your statute -- look for short title, purpose, definitions, etc.
History Line. At the end of the statute's text is a section called Credits. This tells you the statute's history.
EXAMPLE:
Credits
L. 1985, Ch. 168, § 21; L. 1987, Ch. 249, § 51; L. 1999, Ch. 267, § 35; L. 2015, Ch. 145, § 86, eff. July 1, 2015.
In this example, the statute was originally enacted in 1985 and amended in 1987, 1999, and 2015. The text of the current statute was passed in 2015. The language that was in effect from 1998 to 2015 is available in the 1999 session laws at chapter 267, section 35. The more recent session laws will be linked in Westlaw whereas older ones can be accessed in Hein Online or in print.
Tabs. There are tabs for Notes of Decisions, History, Citing References, Context & Analysis.
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