Searching for laws pertaining to local municipalities and counties is not a type of legal research routinely performed by law students. It has been described as the “caboose” of legal research in the United States, with little more than a mere mention in law school research course work.1 However, area attorneys visit the Law Library on a regular basis to do this very kind of work. What resources are used? What is available? This article will provide a basic introduction to the resources commonly used for research of laws pertaining to local municipalities and counties passed by the legislature as well as ordinances created by the municipalities themselves.

There is no uniform structure to local governments in the U.S.; the same can be said for publication of local government laws and regulations. Whether they be city, county, or other local government entities, they are creatures of their state; they rely on state law for their existence and their powers are limited to what the state gives them, either through statute or the state constitution. In the case of Alabama, a constant criticism of the Alabama Constitution is that local officials have very limited authority to govern or raise tax money without prior permission from the Legislature. As a result, particularly in the case of Alabama, laws pertaining to a particular county or municipality may be found in amendments to the state constitution, a session law of the state legislature, or in ordinances created by the city or county government itself.

Some cities still rely on traditional print publication of their codes. The following print codes are shelved in the Reference section:

KFX1124/.A35/1973 The Municipal Code of Bessemer Alabama: the General Ordinances of the City

KFX1128/.B5/1980 The General Code of the City of Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor-Council Act and the General Ordinances of the City / Ordained and Published by Order of the Council 2

A basic problem with any printed municipal codes is one of timeliness; most cities do not place a high priority in updating sections of the code that have changed. As a result, the legal researcher should always consult the city clerk’s office or the department covering the subject matter to ensure that the ordinances relied upon in the publication are still in effect as written.

Other cities are providing access to their codes via the web. This method lends itself to easier updating, as well as providing widespread access to the citizenry. However, legal researchers must still be wary of out-of-date information regardless of the format; again, it pays to contact city hall to verify the timeliness of all sections relied upon. There are several database services that provide access to current city codes online, with www.municode.com being the dominant provider for Alabama municipalities (and some other states, as well). This web address provides fairly current city codes for these Alabama cities and many more, in-state and out-of-state:

Center Point (current as of December 15, 2005)

Homewood (current as of December 4, 2006)

Hoover (current as of December 4, 2006)

Huntsville (current as of February 8, 2007)

Irondale (current as of November 4, 2004)

Mobile (current as of April 10, 2007)

Montgomery (current as of June 19, 2007)

Mountain Brook (current as of August 13, 2007)

Pelham (current as of November 2005, but will be updated monthly in the near future, according to an employee at city hall.)

Pleasant Grove (current as of February 7, 2000)

Tuscaloosa (current as of December 4, 2007)

Vestavia Hills (current as of April 18, 2005)

Other database services providing city codes (but not currently for cities in Alabama) include:

http://www.amlegal.com/library

www.generalcode.com/webcode2.html

http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com

The third web address above is actually a database maintained by LEXIS. It is free for viewing at this web address, though there is no boolean or simple keyword searching; it is a matter of looking at the table of contents and choosing the correct section, as you would a printed version. These same databases are available through the regular LEXIS service (again, there are no Alabama cities available) with the usual means of LEXIS searching, by following this source path:

Legal>States Legal-US>Combined Sources>Find Statutes & Legislative Materials>Municipal Codes

If none of the web addresses listed provide a code of ordinances for the city you are concerned with, you should first try to find the city government’s homepage and see if there is a link to an online code there. If not, you should contact the city clerk’s office, the local law library (if there is one) or a local public library in that municipality.

Slowly, but surely, state acts and constitutional amendments which address Alabama counties and municipalities are becoming more accessible to the legal researcher. The Thomson West edition of the Code of Alabama, 1975, has listed local laws by county, alphabetically, in Title 45, currently through Colbert County. This version can be valuable for several reasons; it includes annotations with West key numbers and C.J.S. citations that could lead the researcher to more valuable topical information. It also provides “code commissioner’s notes” which often list prior superseded acts covering the same topic and locality. The Lexis edition of the Code does not currently include Title 45, and will not likely have it in the near future.3

Additionally, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA), which resides at Samford University, has a database (http://parca.samford.edu) currently covering Alabama local acts from 1866 to 2005, with selected acts back to the early 1800's (contact Jim Williams at PARCA, 726-2482, for further information). This web database allows for boolean searching.

Alabama legislation and constitutional amendments pertaining to local governments are both indexed in 1994 Local Laws Index (supplemented by a free-standing paperback supplement covering 1995-2007) for the State of Alabama by the Legislative Reference Service. This work is first divided up by county, and then subdivided within each county into three indices:

The first index provides local acts applicable to a county either because it is specifically named in the act or because it fits a population description stated in the act’s text.

The second index, “Local Laws Applying To Municipalities of [named county,]” provides a listing of local acts applicable to municipalities in that county either because they are specifically named in the act or because they fit a population description stated in the act’s text.

The third index, “Constitutional Amendments,” lists such state amendments that apply to either the county as a whole or to cities within that county.

Unknown to many researchers, there is a digest service for ordinances. Ordinance Law Annotations: a Comprehensive Digest of American Cases That Interpret or Apply City and County Ordinances (First Floor, Digest section) by Shepard’s/McGraw-Hill is such a resource. To use it to find case law covering a specific city’s ordinances, the researcher would go to the Table of Cases volumes at the end of the set (beginning with volume 6A) and look up the state, then the city, in the alphabetized table. Once the needed city has been found, individual entries will provide a case citation as well as an abbreviated subject heading and section number referring to the location where it is digested. Hopefully, these subject headings will be sufficient for the researcher to discern which decisions address the ordinance of interest, if there are any. As always, be sure to check the pocketpart for any updates.

Citators for local laws resulting from legislative act or constitutional amendment are also available. Because Alabama local laws are in the process of being codified in title 45, it is now worth checking Code of Alabama, 1975 citations in Shepard’s Alabama Citations, Seventh Edition, Statutes for court decisions citing to those newly-codified local laws. Further, the researcher may also check the “Alabama Acts” section of this same volume if the local act citation (prior to codification) is known.

If you have any questions about performing research with local acts, please contact a reference librarian.

__________________________________________________________________

1 Marc A. Levin, How to Find Local Law: A California Paradigm, 13 Legal Res. Services Q. 79.

2 There have been no available updates for the “current” edition since December 17, 1996. According to an employee of the City of Birmingham Law Department, it is the city’s plan to eventually provide Birmingham’s code via the web as well. No specific time line was given.

3 In talking with Kathleen Garrison of Lexis, she indicated that organization of Title 45 is a work product of Thomson West and, as a result, cannot be used by the Lexis edition. She indicated that the company hopes to eventually obtain permission to include Title 45 in its set.

Each year, various organizations sponsor writing competitions for law school students. Some of these contests offer substantial cash awards, the opportunity to publish in prestigious journals, and free trips to professional association meetings. For information on writing competitions, check the bulletin board just outside office 224 in the Cumberland Law School. If a topic catches your interest, just ask Mrs. Janice Brantley for a copy of the posting. The following is a sampling of present contest listings:

1. The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and Hofstra Law School’s writing contest on family law with $500 first prize, $250 for honorable mention (deadline March 14, 2008);

2. Inter-American Bar Association’s award to the best three papers on the rule of law and governability, awarding $800 for first place, $600 for second, and $400 for third (deadline April 20, 2008);

3. Notre Dame Law School’s Smith-Doheny competition on legal ethics awarding $1,000 to the winning entry (deadline April 25, 2008);

4. American College of Trust and Estate Counsel’s contest on trusts, estates, or related taxation with $5000 first prize, $3000 second prize, and $1000 third prize (deadline May 1, 2008);

5. The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Inc. competition on any aspect of public or private labor or employment law with $1500 first prize, $1000 second prize and $500 third prize plus publication in the College’s newsletter and attendance at the annual dinner (deadline May 15, 2008);

6. American Judges Association essay competition with $3000 first prize, $1500 second prize and $1000 third prize (deadline June 2, 2008);

7. American Inns of Court, Warren E. Burger prize for papers on legal professionalism (deadline June 15, 2008);

8. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ contest on copyright law for third-year (and selected second-year) law students with prizes ranging from $250 to $3000 (deadline June 30, 2008);

9. Federal Circuit Bar Association’s George Hutchinson competition on subjects within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, with $3000 first prize (deadline June 30, 2008).

There is discussion every so often about Macs and virus protection. Do Mac users really need virus protection? As a Mac user for over ten years, I can honestly say that I have never used virus protection. That said, I have often been concerned that as Macs become more and more popular -- virus protection may be necessary. We may be headed in that direction -- it is hard to tell. Macs are obviously becoming more popular, so it would make sense that Mac users are now a larger and more desirable target for viruses, trojans, etc. Samford offers free virus protection for Macs -- McAfee VirusScan. This is available for the Tiger OS as well as Leopard. It is easy to update and easy to use. If you’d like to use this on your Mac, please contact: Grace Simms, Computer Services Librarian, for help with any of the above – glsimms@samford.edu or 726-2687.

One more issue of CHECK IT OUT will be published this semester. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to ways we can improve, contact: Becky Hutto at rmhutto@samford.edu.