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Pa. laws now available online
Staff writer
Pennsylvania has become the last state to give its citizens free, online access to its body of laws.
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Taking credit for the addition to the Web site is state Sen. Jake Corman, a Centre County Republican and Senate majority policy chairman.
He has introduced legislation in several sessions to put the statutes online, but they did not pass. He did an end run around the legislative process by instituting a rules change.
"We've been arguing for eight years that this stuff should be available for the people," said Don Houser, a Corman aide in Harrisburg.
Rep. Lisa Bennington, D-Allegheny, sponsored a bill to put laws online that passed the House in June, but Cheryl Hicks, a spokesman for state Sen. Barry Stout, D-Bentleyville, said the Senate never voted on it before recessing for the summer.
Previously, the laws were available only in books. People would also contact their state legislators for copies of state laws.
Washington County law librarian Nancy Weiss doesn't expect law libraries to go out of business because her customer base has suddenly gone online.
"Having the Pennsylvania statutes available now online rounds out free access to official 'primary law,'" Weiss said.
"But while citizens can get online the actual state and federal law - legislation, regulations, case law, and constitutional law - I'd still recommend they come to the law library to read about the law.
"For the layman, doing legal research using only the primary law is like trying to assemble a machine with a big box of parts and no instructions."
Weiss recommended that researchers supplement their statutes-online reading by looking at the law library's annotated statues which will refer to the court cases that applied those statutes to real situations.
Legal encyclopedias and handbooks give researchers an overview to help them to find more easily the relevant statutes, cases and regulations pertinent to a particular issue.
She also recommended the Web site, palawhelp.org as a resource for providing background on civil matters. The Web site is sponsored by Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Legal Services Corp.
"Most laymen who come to our law library want to find out how to represent themselves in court, usually in family matters. People representing themselves at the Common Pleas level need to be familiar with the state and local court rules, which are available respectively at www.pacode.com and at www.co.washington.pa.us," Weiss said. On the latter, readers should go to Court of Common Pleas downloads.
Even a 20-something who practically grew up with the Internet still prefers to hit the books.
"I guess I'm old school," said Nicholas Retos, 23, of Washington, a 2006 Washington & Jefferson College graduate who was working over the summer for the local law firm of Keranko and Jeffries.
"A book sort of sums it all up. It's one physical thing in front of you instead of trying to scour the Internet."
