Sometimes the meaning of a statute is unclear. Legislative history documents may shed light on what the General Assembly intended when they passed legislation (legislative intent). Legislative history documents are materials issued when the bill was going through the legislative process.
To identify legislative history documents for a particular Ohio Revised Code section, look at the History/Credits underneath the text of the statute in an annotated code. Identify the Act (Session Law) you are interested in. Then locate legislative history documents corresponding to that Act.
QUICK FIX:
If the Act was passed 1989 or later, a great place to start is Hannah (Ohio) Capitol Connection . For Acts 1997 and later, the Ohio General Assembly's webpage has many documents accessible. The main legislative history documents in Ohio are bills and Session Laws, and Legislative Service Commission Analysis. Older LSC Analysis back to 1962 is on microfilm. Westlaw has some Ohio legislative history documents from 1997 on, conveniently located in tabs on Ohio Revised Code sections and on Acts(Session Laws). The same is true of Lexis, although the legislative history documents on Lexis go back to about 2005. Hannah and the Ohio General Assembly's web page usually have more documents than what is on Lexis and Westlaw.
For more details, see additional pages in this guide:
Steps for Finding Legislative History
Courts may or may not rely upon the legislative history documents. In Ohio, legislative history documents are not "of record", unlike federal legislative history, so they are not required to be retained. The weight given by courts to various types of legislative history documents is discussed below. For more info see OJur3d Statutes, Sections 165-168
The links go to where these documents are available on the free web. For information on how to find older documents and Lexis/Westlaw links, see Types of Legislative History Documents page in this guide.
| Legislative Process | Federal | Ohio |
| Bill Introduced | Bill | Bill LSC Analysis |
| Committee holds hearing | Committee Prints (research reports) | LSC Staff Research Reports |
| Committee recommends legislation | House/Senate Report | LSC Analysis |
| Debates and Votes |
Congressional Record - debates House/Senate Journal - votes |
The Ohio Channel - debates House/Senate Journals - votes |
| Amended bill sent to conference committee | Conference Report | |
| Bill Becomes Law |
Slip Law United States Statutes at Large US Code |
Laws of Ohio (session laws) |
| Veto Message |
Congressional Record Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents |
Governor’s Messages |