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Ohio Legal Research Guide
Executive/Administrative LawOhio Administrative CodeAdministrative agencies have the power to adopt rules to carry out their mission. The Ohio Administrative Code is the codification of the rules adopted by the agencies. Sources:
Regulations "adopted by reference" are not contained in the Ohio Administrative Code. You must located the text in other documents. This is especially true in the building code, which incorporates the Ohio Basic Building Code by reference. The General Index volume to the Ohio Administrative Code contains a list of documents incorporated by reference. The Ohio Legislative Service Commission or Ohio Secretary of State can provide the text of the regulations adopted by reference, if the text is not available otherwise. Rulemaking Procedure:There are two rule-making procedures in Ohio, one in ORC Chapter 119 (Ohio Administrative Procedure Act, 1943) and the other in ORC 111.15 . Rule-making procedures under ORC Chapter 119 require agencies to give notice of their intent to promulgate new rules and to conduct public hearings. ORC 111.15 procedures have no notice and hearing requirement. The basic steps for Chapter 119 rulemaking are: 1. Agency gives public notice in the Register of Ohio of: (1) the proposed rule; and (2) the public hearing to be held on the proposed rule. 2. Agency files the proposed rule, fiscal analysis and rule summary with the Ohio Secretary of State, Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) and Legislative Service Commission. These documents are published in the Register of Ohio. 3. Agency holds a public hearing on the proposed rule. 4. JCARR reviews the proposed rule, unless exempt by statute. JCARR will tell the General Assembly if a proposed rule should be invalidated. 5. The agency finalizes the rule, and file a final rule with JCARR, Legislative Service Commission and Secretary of State. The rule can not be finalized until 66 days after filing the proposed rule. The rule may not become final if the legislature objects. 6. The General Assembly can invalidate an adopted rule within 59 days after it was filed with JCARR. For more details, see Michael Burns, An Overview of Administrative Rulemaking in Ohio , Ohio Legislative Service Commission Members Only Brief , vol. 121, issue 15, rev. 4 (Feb. 25, 2005); the library's Administrative Law Research Guide; and Ohio Administrative Law Handbook, (Thomson West 2007), KFO 34.5 O35. Updating Regulations contained in the Ohio Administrative Code:Step One: Keycite or shepardize to see if the regulation was held unconstitutional or otherwise invalid by a court Step Two: Find any new regulations changing, adding or repealing Administrative Code sections. See below. Finding Proposed Regulations and New Regulations :Here are some sources to find newly adopted regulations and proposed regulations:
Finding Prior RegulationsIn the current Ohio Administrative Code, after the text of the code section, you will see a "history" or "credit" section. Here is a typical example: The citations in this history section indicate the year and page number of the Ohio Monthly Record (OMR) where you can find prior versions of the regulation. The letters indicate what happened to the regulation, for example, R-E means repealed and reenacted, RRD means the rule review date and A means amended. There is a table of what these abbreviations mean in the first volume of the Ohio Administrative Code. Note that the last citation, "prior OLC 2.1", does not have an "OMR" cite. That is because the regulation was issued before the Ohio Administrative Code was created in 1977. Pre-1977 regulations can be obtained from the agency itself. Area libraries may have some of these old regulations. For example, "Industrial Commission regulations, relating to all workshops and factories, effective Jan. 1, 1967", is available at the Cleveland State University Library, HD7262.5.U62 O25 1967. The State Library of Ohio (part of Ohiolink) has the most complete collection of pre-1977 regulations. Places to find prior OAC regulations:
Administrative DecisionsThe Administrative Procedure Act, ORC Ch. 119, provides for enforcement of regulations and agency statutes through quasi-judicial actions. Many agency cases are informally adjudicated, ie. the Rules of Evidence are not strictly applied and the Civil Rules do not apply. Agency decisions are required to be entered in the agency's journal, but they are not required to be published (ORC 119.09). Agency orders may be appealed to a higher agency authority according to the agency enabling statute. A final agency decision may be appealed to the common pleas court as allowed by the Administrative Procedure Act, the agency enabling statute, general appellate procedure defined in ORC Chapter 2506 or other statute. For more details on administrative agency adjudications, see Ohio Administrative Law Handbook, (Thomson West 2007) KFO 34.5 O35 . Free Access via Agency Web SitesHere are some of the agency
decisions available on the web. For others not listed here, you may want
to check the agency web site, via the list of all state
agencies. Tax
Commissioner Opinions (selected) Ohio Elections Commission Advisory Opinions (1986- ) Ohio Public Utilities Commission Entries and Orders (1997- ) Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation Selected Legal Opinions State Personnel Board of Review (1996-) Some of the agency opinions accessible via the Cleveland Marshall College of Law Library (This information is current as of June, 2007):
Some agency decisions are unpublished and hard to find. For example: Decisions of the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission -- formerly the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Board of Review -- are available for a small fee from the Banks-Baldwin research department (216-520-5586). The Ohio Supreme Court library also collects these decisions.
Executive Orders
Sue Altmeyer, Electronic Services Librarian, July 3, 2007
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