A statute’s language may have a fairly complicated history and the annotations accompanying the major code books published may not provide you with the specific changes that were legislated for each of the bills identified in the annotations for the statute. At this point, it becomes necessary to “trace” your language to find out which one legislative measure brought in your language of interest within the statute in question. The Statutes at Large for California go back to 1850 and you should be able to find these chapter books at your local law library. When the governor signs any bill into law, the secretary of state will assign a ... Read More >