Florida Administrative
Law Research
Marin Dell & Trisha Simonds
Spring 2010
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Overview
• Florida Administrative Code (FAC) and
Florida Administrative Weekly (FAW)
contain agency rules and regulations.
• The Division of Administrative Hearings
(DOAH), appellate courts, and various
agencies issue orders and opinions that
are published in the Florida
Administrative Law Reports (FALR).
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Authority for Florida Administrative Law
• Florida Statutes – enabling statutes
• Florida Statutes – Ch. 120, Administrative
Procedure Act
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Florida Statutes
• Agencies are created by the legislature
with an “enabling statute.”
• Enabling statutes set out the substantive
law the agency is charged with applying
and give the agency rulemaking authority
in that area.
• Example: Florida State Fair Authority –
Florida Statutes, Chapter 616.251
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Florida Administrative Code
• Since 1961, Florida has required that most
administrative rules be published. (See Fla.
Stat. § 120.55)
• Florida Administrative Weekly) was first
published in 1962.
• The Florida Administrative Code (FAC) was
first published in 1963.
• The FAC and FAW are published by the
Florida Department of State, Bureau of the
Administrative Code and Administrative
Weekly.
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‘’
• The FAC consists of 69 chapters.
• Chapters are frequently (but not always)
subdivided by letters.
• Each rule within a chapter has a decimal
number designation.
• Example: Within Ch. 6 – Dept. of
Education, see Rule 6C2-3.045, College
of Law Student Conduct Code.
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• For each rule there is:
• a rule number
• a caption
• the text of the rule
• a note containing “Specific
Authority” (enabling
statutes) and “History.”
• History notes are especially
useful if you need to locate an
older version of a rule.
flrules.org contains:
• FAC (Word documents)
• FAW (PDF)
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WESTLAW
• The current code is at FL-ADC.
• The FAC, as of the end of 2004, is FLADC04
• 2005 version is FL-ADC05
• 2006 version is FL-ADC06
• 2007 version is FL-ADC07
• 2008 version is FL-ADC08
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LEXIS
• The current Florida Administrative Code
Annotated is at FLREGS. It is updated
“regularly.”
Both Westlaw and Lexis include history
and transfer information in their notes on
repealed and transferred rules.
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Florida Administrative Weekly
• The Florida Administrative Code
(FAC) is a snapshot of the
administrative rules at a given
moment in time.
• Florida Administrative Weekly (FAW)
shows the rules changing over time.
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• The FAW contains the text of proposed
rules.
• It also contains:
• Notices that an agency is beginning the
rulemaking process
• Notices of changes to proposed rules
• Announcements of public meetings
• Notices regarding state contracting and
purchasing, with contact information
• Other miscellaneous items
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FAW Indexing
• FAW has an index (by agency name) to
rules filed during the preceding week and
a “List of Rules Affected.”
• FAW is published weekly, but the List of
Rules Affected is only published in the
first issue of each month. It covers rule
changes proposed during the preceding
8 weeks.
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LEXIS and WESTLAW:
• Lexis (but not Westlaw) has a database
containing the Florida Administrative
Weekly (FAW). Filename: FLREGS
• Both Lexis and Westlaw include
privately-created “regulation tracking”
databases that cover Florida.
• Lexis: FLRGTR
• Westlaw: FL-REGTRK and FL-REGTXT
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For More Information:
• Florida Legal Research – Sources, Process,
and Analysis (3rd Ed.)
• by Barbara J. Busharis
• Law Library KFF 75 .R69 2007
• Guide To Florida Legal Research
• by Betsy L. Stupski
• Law Library KFF 75 .B7 2008
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Thanks for coming!
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