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Legal Research Process

When to Look for Regulations

Agencies impact Texans' lives in many ways, especially through the creation of regulations. There are regulations for interior designers, barbers, cat and dog breeders, bar owners, bingo workers, etc. Many industries are impacted by regulations like health care, oil and gas, agriculture, banking, insurance, etc. As a legal researcher, it is important to know about the regulations that affect your legal practice area, know how to find them, and stay up-to-date regarding changes. 

Any given area of law may involve statutes, regulations, and/or case law. These three types of primary law exist on both the federal and state level. Figuring out what primary law is on point to your particular issue can be difficult, which is why it is important to look for secondary sources first that pull relevant authority from all three branches of government, on both a federal and state level. 

Of the three kinds of primary law to turn to after surveying secondary sources, it is usually best to research regulations after statutes, but before case law. Statutes provide the authority for agencies to create regulations whereas courts are called upon to interpret both statutes and regulations.

By this point in your research, you may already have citations to regulations from secondary sources or from researching statutory law. It is at this stage in the research that you will want to turn to regulatory sources to confirm that you have located all relevant regulations or to confirm that in fact  your question does not involve regulatory law.

How to Find Rules

Regulations are available in print and online. Online sources include both free, such as from the Secretary of State's website, and commercial, such as from Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg. See this guide's individual subpages for further detail.