A legal citation is a set of letters and numbers that describes how to locate a statute, regulation or rule. Below is a brief explanation of the conventions used in citing federal and state statutes, rules and regulations.
Federal Statutes
All federal statutes are called public laws, abbreviated as P.L. Statutes are first introduced into Congress as bills. The first number of the public law identifies the Congress that enacted the bill. The second number identifies the order in which the bill was enacted. For instance: P.L. 94-142 means that this law (the Education For All Handicapped Act) was the 142nd Public Law enacted by the 94th Congress. P.L. 94-142 is the Federal special education law that guarantees a free, appropriate public education to persons with handicaps. It is found with other federal statutes in the United States Code (USC).
The correct legal citation for P.L. 94-142 si 20 USC 1401 et seq. Et seq means “and subsequent sections” P.L. 94-142 is in Title 20, the education title. 1401 is the first section of P.L. 94-142. That is: 20 USC 1401 et. seq means that Title 20, United States Code, Section 1401 and subsequent sections Federal Regulations Federal regulations are compiled in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). P.L. 94-142 is found in Title 34 of the CFR. P.L. 142 regulations begin at Section 301.1 et. seq.
Recent changes in federal regulations are reported daily in the Federal Register; these regulations are abbreviated with FR in the citation. For instance 34 CFR 301.1 means: Title 34 Code of Federal Regulations, and the number 301.1 is the section where P.L. 94-142 regulations begin.
