Law Resources: Finding Connecticut Statutes & Legislative History Documents

Before you start, you need to decide what you're looking for:

  1. The text and status of a bill currently before the General Assembly
  2. The text of an act as it was passed by the Assembly OR
  3. The law as it is currently in effect, complete with changes that may have been made since the law was enacted
  4. Documents from the bill's passage through the legislature such as hearings and reports

Read What is statutory law? for help deciding.

Finding the current status and text of a bill:

  • Connecticut General Assembly Home Page (http://www.cga.ct.gov/)
    • If you know the bill number, type it in the box at the top of the page.
    • To search for a bill by subject, roll the cursor over Search and select Subject Index to Bills or Basic Legislative Document Search and then Bill Status.
    • You can also use the links to search the House or Senate list of Bills.

Finding session laws:

Finding General Statutes of Connecticut:

  • Connecticut General Assembly Home Page
    • Roll over Statutes to select Search or Browse (or click on Statutes and select on the next page).
    • If you use Search, select Statutes Section Text from the Database(s) menu (you can select more).
    • If you use Browse, you'll see a clickable table of contents for the General Statutes, arranged by title (subject area).
  • Westlaw
    After you click the LAW tab, select State Codes and choose Connecticut from the pull-down menu. Remember to use quotation marks around search phrases (ex. "right to die").
  • General Statutes of Connecticut
    KFC 3630 1958 .A247

Finding legislative history documents:

  • Connecticut General Assembly Home Page companion documents from a bill's passage into law.
    • Roll over Search and select Advanced Legislative Document Search.
    • In the Database(s) menu, select any or all of the following: Public Hearing Transcripts, Journals, OLR Reports, PRI Reports, and Session Transcripts.
    • You can also follow the House or Senate links from the main page, or follow the Committee links from the top of the screen.
The first image below shows the Connecticut General Assembly Home page. When you roll your cursor over Search (circled in red), you'll see the menu next to it appear.

The two images below show the Westlaw search page that you see after you click on the LAW tab. Type your search in the search boxes and then scroll down until you see State Statutes. Click in the box and then use the pull-down menu to choose Connecticut.