Search Texas laws and codes, California statutes and other legal databases.

This website is provided as a free public service to private citizens who wish to search Texas laws and codes, California statutes, as well as the laws and codes of Delaware and Connecticut for information on a particular legal issue.

The taxpayer, for whom ignorance is no excuse, has a fundamental right to free and timely access of the laws they must follow. Citizen awarenes and particpation in government is fundamental to ensuring a sound democracy.

This project was created in 1998 in order to allow Internet linking of statute citations published in Texas County Judge bench books directly to the statutes themselves. To meet this need, we developed techniques to self-publish the laws and codes of Texas. This project has continued for almost 3 decades (27 years).

Although the original intended audience for this resource was solely members of the Texas county judiciary and their staff, it was by design, never firewalled, and has been publicly faced (without any promotion) for more than 25 years.

Private citizens can use this resource to search Texas law and codes, as well as the laws and statutes of other states using an advanced search engine custom developed for non-lawyers.

This system, which came to be known as 'HITS' (Hypertext Index Tracking System) utilizes several unique features including:

• one-click searching of all non-noise words contained directly in the statutes themselves,

• an advanced search feature that enables more complex queries without the need for complicated command syntax associated with the major pay services and other public sites,

• search results that display not only the text found, but the parent headings and subheadings associated with the text (greatly improving context and reducing the amount of time picking through numerous similar results),

• not sure what code to look in? ... search across the entirety of the laws and codes in one step,

• smart searching that automatically cross references similar searches and suggests other variations of search terms including synonyms and related articles,

• comprehensive full text single click hyperlinked index covering all non-noise words and the statutes sorted alphabetically or by frequency,

• legal news feeds covering the latest legal developments making the headlines and integrated into searches,

• articles addressing hundreds of common legal issues from a practical viewpoint integrated within the statutes and searches, and

• a fully integrated legal thesaurus.

When asked, many members of the county judiciary said they preferred this search engine over some of the more expensive alternatives they already had access to.

Freedom of Information

There is clear precedent throughout our nation's history that judicial opinions and statutes are in the public domain and are NOT subject to copyright. As such, this website also serves to demonstrate an individual's right to publish the law as established by the Sixth Circuit in Howell v. Miller, 91 F. 129 (1898) which states:

"no one can obtain the exclusive right to publish the laws of a state in a book prepared by him. This general proposition cannot be doubted. And it may also be said that any person desiring to publish the statutes of a state may use any copy of such statutes to be found in any printed book, whether such book be the property of the state or the property of an individual."

Although unfettered access to the law is a fundamental right to all citizens, there is no substitute for experienced legal counsel. The right to access the laws and codes is not an endorsement of self-representation. To effectively navigate the perils of legal procedure in the real world, the services of a legal professional are recommended.

Codified law is only ONE piece of the legal puzzle. The information presented herein is intended to serve the public interest but is NOT to be considered legal counsel. It should not be relied upon without multiple sources and the advice of professional legal representation.

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