Annotations appear after the text of the code section and its "credits" string (a list of statutes that created and/or amended the code section—see Step 2). Generally, the annotations are background information (citations and cross references) added by the editorial staff of the code publisher. Depending on what is available for a particular code section, you may find:
Citations to Legislative Counsel opinions
- Where: printed in Senate Journal or Assembly Journal for each legislative year, available in Stacks KFC5 (look in index, under "Legislative Counsel"
- What: This public agency provides nonpartisan legal expertise in drafting and structuring legislation to integrate with existing law
Citations to Law Revision Commission Reports
- Where: some reports will be found in print, at Stacks, KFC27 .A3; many reports and related materials are online at the CLRC site
- What: This independent agency may be directed by the Legislature to recommend and comment on law reforms.
Citations to Attorney General Opinions
- Where: citations to "Ops. Atty Gen." refer to a volume/year and page found in print, at Stacks, KFC780 .A55; also in Westlaw or Lexis+
- What: commentary by the California AG as to the interpretation, intent, and/or legislative history of your statute may itself be citeable authority, and may provide citations or other leads.
Historical notes
- Where: in print and in Lexis+ or Nexis Uni, usually after the Credits/History section; in Westlaw, they are under the History tab (statutory text and Credits are on the Document tab, and the next tabs should be Notes of Decisions and History)
- What: editorial annotations may include additional information about the derivation of a statute, the nature of amendments, etc., which can save you time in determining which bills or amendments are of interest.
- Westlaw-only feature: included in the History tab of the code section you may see not only Historical Notes describing past amendments, but also a Legislative History Materials filter for linked documents; these are a good start but note this is not a complete legislative history, and not all will necessarily relate to the particular year/chapter that you are researching.
Notes of decisions, research references
- Where: in print and in Lexis+ or Nexis Uni, usually after Credits/History and often after Historical Notes; on Lexis+ and Westlaw, additional cases and research references are also listed on the Other Citing References or Citing References tab (filter for cases or for secondary sources
- What: holdings summaries from cases, and books or articles discussing the statute (and sometimes its intent or origins), which may provide research leads.
