Who has actually sat down to read the laws of your state?

Hi Everyone,

This is directed to people in America
If you haven't taken the time to actually read about the laws and punishments (fines, jail time), may I suggest you take a few hours with your family to read them. It is your duty to read them and (hopefully) understand them. Some laws have exemption/waivers (loopholes). If you are interested you can start by actually looking up the LAWS called STATUTES and Revised STATUTES.

Some States Statues and Revised Statutes are Listed here, you can google most of them: *Make sure they are up-to-date most laws take time to be published. [Edit for more info, change link]
www.michie.com...

I am in no way affiliated with the above site, but I did find it to be a very good resource for looking them up.

I have only checked out Colorado but I am pretty sure most States laws are structured in the same way, please correct me if I am wrong ATS.

-TITLE (Tells you what section your in, what the LAW is about, TOC of all Articles)

-ARTICLE (Includes Table of Contents of all sections within that Article, scope, Applicability of Supplemental Principles of Law, and the OFFICIAL COMMENT)

-PART (numbered so you can find what your looking for, it should also be labeled accordingly).

example:

I want to find out about my states laws concerning the INTEREST on a "Negotiable Instruments" or money. (I have already found it for use in this example, but for Colorado it is:


4-3-112. Interest.

This is how we find it:

-The First #4 is the TITLE the information is located in.

-The #3 is the Article it is under in the TITLE.

-The #112 is in numbered order, so it is the 12th one on the list of PARTS.

ALSO if you do not understand the word or the context of the word then look it up in the Glossary for each law, or in Blacks Law Dictionary, because there is a LANGUAGE called "legalese" and yes it is real, its is copy of the English Language but all the word definitions are changed and they my mean something to you but do not mean the same thing in Context to the Statutes in your state.

For instance you think "person" to be a living, breathing human being, It is not according to Blacks Law Dictionary. Also go look up the term "human being" in Blacks Law Dictionary, you might be surprised!!!


-This is your wakeup call, I am your alarm clock

Peace

SourD

[edit on 19-2-2010 by sourdiesel]

Thanks for posting this especially since we are collaboratively attempting to deny ignorance here at ATS.

I have researched some of my state statutes pertaining to traffic laws, which helped me beat a red light ticket a few years ago.

Researching those traffic laws Saved me alot of money on fines and insurance surcharges too !

Use the system and it's laws to work for you and not Against you !!!

As a student of the law...thank you for posting this very important public service message. So many believe that the laws hold them down, when this is for the most part untrue. In my experience it is the misunderstanding of laws by humans that hold us down. We develop notions of what is the law and what is not.

I've done an unofficial poll over the years regarding the term "Right to Work." How many know if they live in a "Right to Work" state? You would be surprised that most think they work in a "Right to Work" state. You may even be more surprised to learn that "Right to Work" does not mean what many people think it means. "Right to Work" refers to the right to work with or without union representation, contrary to the beliefs of many Americans. This misinformation is spread through average people who simply have not looked up the laws. The laws for the most part are written to protect you, and to be used.

I would guess it would take a person at least a year at 8 hours a day to read a state's law code. Then you would have forgotten most all of what you read because its so incomprehendible and boring. Even people that have been to law school differ on the interpretation of many statutes. And every year they change many of them and these don't get put into the statue books but come out in a bound volume called the "Session Laws" and will be put into the code books in about a year (actually a little less than a year) and come out in pocket parts or supplements until it becomes so massive that a new volume is published.

But that is only a small part of the law. The code is called "annotated" because it lists after the statute all the cases that were decided regarding that particular statute and that is only as current as the code books and supplements. Those cases are even more massive than the code books by a factor of about 100 times as many pages as in the code books. In fact it would probably be impossible for a person to read in their lifetime all the cases and statutes for a given state through even once.

You therefore have a couple of options. One is to learn how to do legal research. You would need a subscription to Lexis-Mexis or Westlaw or sometimes the states have their law on line for free. Or you can consult an attorney who practices in a particular area. Your best option is to do both. Do the research and then take your conclusions and run them by an attorney. Attorneys work in the law all the time and thus can read a case and make sense of it much more rapidly. Thats essentially what the first couple of semesters in law school is all about. Being able to read a case and to get what is called the "holding" or common law established by the case. And when you complete law shcool you will be successful if you know when you don't know something. In other words you are versed enough to know when you have to look something up. And thats most of the time.

You can become well versed in a particular area of the law like criminal or landlord tenant or real estate and thats how a lot of firms do it. Like I know a firm in LA that specializes in drunk driving cases. Thats all they do. There is a huge number of cases over the country that establish precendent in drunk driving every month. The breathalyzers are subject to question. The software has been investigated and in some cases found to be erroneous. One attorney even has one himself he takes to parties to let judges use to see how flaky they actual can be. The field sonriety tests are almost totally up toi the officers discretion and are in general simply a ruse to make the arrest. In many states nystygmus tests are not admissible as evidence.

In other words the law has become so massive that one can only be an expert in a small part of it and therefore you have to specialize. Its sort of like doctors where you have family doctors and you have specialists. General practitioners can do basic things such as drafting wills, residential leases, real estate sales agreements, basic criminal defense, divorce, bankruptcy, but if its a complicated case or a large amount is at stake, you will be referred to a specialist.

reply to post by MrWizard


I am a lawyer. I think it is safe to say that nobody practicing law has any state's statute cover to cover and has read every single court case coming out of the state. Nor is it necessary.

In order to practice law, you only need to know "the tip of the iceberg" in a particular area of expertise. You do legal research when you need to find out what the statutes, regulations, or case law says about a particular issue.

THere are over SIX MILLION statutes on the books. Statutes, not laws. SIX MILLION. Everyone is doing something "illegal" at all times. It is a scam. Not LAWFUL.