Tracking Pending or Recently Enacted Legislation using Shepard’s® Citations Service (4/09)
In December 2008, LexisNexis® began enhancing Shepard’s® reports for state and federal statutes. These enhancements currently apply to Shepard’s reports for the New York, California, Texas, and Ohio state codes, as well as the United States Code Service. Some of the exciting new changes include:
- The Shepard’s report is now a comprehensive report for the statute being Shepardized™, although you can still access the Shepard’s report for a subsection from the index in the comprehensive report
- The Shepard’s report includes the Shepard's Summary box, which has links to pending and recently enacted legislation, if any
- The ability to link to slip laws from the Legislative history section of the Shepard’s report, depending upon the age of the slip law
The addition of any pending and recently enacted legislation to Shepard’s reports for statutes is a remarkable new way to put the Shepard’s Alert® feature to excellent use. Setting up a Shepard’s Alert on a statute with the new enhancements now means you can receive a Shepard’s Alert e-mail when:
- Pending legislation is added to the Shepard’s report for your statute
- Pending legislation affecting your statute is finally enacted and signed into law
- The recently enacted law is codified into the statutes
For example, if you think the New York legislature is considering changes to a particular debt collection statute, N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law sec. 602 for example, and are interested in keeping abreast of future developments, you can track the legislation that could potentially affect this statute with the Shepard’s Alert feature by taking the following steps:
- Click the Alerts tab at the top of any LexisNexis® page at lexis.com®.
- Click the Shepard's Alert tab.
- Enter the citation N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law sec. 602 in the Create a New Shepard’s Alert form and click the Set Up button to set up a new Shepard’s Alert.
- Select the radio button under the Comprehensive Report option, and click the Continue button.
- Choose the options you prefer on the next screen, and click the Continue button.
- The last screen shows all the options you have selected. If these are correct, simply click the Save button.
For more information on using Shepard’s and Alerts, visit the LexisNexis Support Center.
