Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes

GENERAL PROVISIONS (TITLE 1)

PART I. THE PENNSYLVANIA CONSOLIDATED STATUTES

CHAPTER 5 - OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE CONSOLIDATED STATUTES

§ 501. Publication and distribution.
§ 502. Preparation and contents.
§ 503. Official status of publication.

§ 501. Publication and distribution.

(a) General rule.- The Legislative Reference Bureau may compile, edit, publish, print, supplement and revise or contract directly or through the Legislative Printing Clerk for the compilation, editing, publishing, printing, supplementation or revision of an official publication of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes and amendments thereto. It shall be the duty of the Department of Property and Supplies, upon request of the bureau, to arrange for the prompt distribution of the official publication and the supplements thereto and revisions thereof in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. This publication shall be in addition to the publication of advance copies of statutes and the Laws of Pennsylvania except that the bureau, when authorized by concurrent resolution of the General Assembly, may reduce the number of such statutes and laws published and printed and provide for the manner of their distribution and a fee to be charged for certain distributions.

(b) Sale and distribution.- The prices to be charged for individual copies of and subscriptions to the official publication, the supplements thereto and revisions thereof, for reprints and bound volumes thereof, which prices may be fixed without reference to the restrictions placed upon and fixed for the sale of other publications of the Commonwealth, and the number of copies which shall be distributed free for official use shall be established by the bureau. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the bureau may provide for the free reciprocal exchange of publications between this Commonwealth and other states and foreign jurisdictions and for the free distribution of at least one copy of every publication printed under authority of this chapter to each:

1. County for the use of its law library.
2. Member of the General Assembly at the post office address specified by him.
3. Law school library which pursuant to rules of court receives copies of printed briefs and records filed in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

(c) Payments and disposition of moneys.- Payments for documents published by authority of this chapter shall be made to the Department of Property and Supplies which shall pay the same into the State Treasury to the credit of the General Fund. Such moneys are hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the Legislative Reference Bureau to carry out the provisions of this chapter.

[NOTE: The Department of Property and Supplies, referred to in section 501, is now the Department of General Services.]

§ 502. Preparation and contents.

(a) General rule.- In compiling and editing the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes and amendments thereto for publication, the bureau may:

1. Omit provisions of the amendatory acts which do not become a part of the structure of this act or which do not constitute part of the law as provided in section 1101(b) of this title (relating to enacting clause and unofficial provisions).
2. Include the provisions or a summary of the provisions referred to in paragraph (1) of this subsection in a footnote, appendix, table or other form at such a place and in such a manner as it deems appropriate but any unofficial provisions so included shall not constitute part of the law.
3. Include tables of contents, summary analyses, source notes, parallel tables, indexes, cross references to statutes and regulations, and such other provisions, whether or not contained in this act or in any amendment or amendments to this act, as the bureau deems appropriate but any unofficial provisions so included shall not constitute part of the law.
4. Include the Constitution of Pennsylvania and proposed amendments thereto as well as selected general and permanent laws and amendments thereto.
5. Establish a form of citation of such publication or any part thereof which may be used for the purpose of drafting amendments to this act and for other purposes not inconsistent with the provisions of section 102 of this title (relating to citation of Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes) and section 303 of this title (relating to cross references between provisions of the Consolidated Statutes).

(b) Approvals by legislative officers.- The President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall approve:

1. The form and contents of the publication prepared by the bureau.
2. All contracts entered into by the bureau or the Legislative Printing Clerk pursuant to section 501(a) of this title (relating to publication and distribution).
3. All regulations and decisions of the bureau relating to the distribution of the publication and the prices to be charged for such publications pursuant to section 501(b) of this title (relating to publication and distribution).

§ 503. Official status of publication.

The publication prepared by the bureau pursuant to this chapter shall constitute an official publication of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes and shall be legal evidence of the laws contained therein including the Constitution and laws incorporated therein pursuant to section 502(a)(4) of this title (relating to preparation and contents).

The complete Pennsylvania Statutes are not yet available on the web. However, selected portions have been made available and can be accessed by CLICKING HERE. These statutes, though available instantaneously over the web, may not be the current law. Court decisions overturning them, later statutes amending them, and a host of other factors come into play when interpreting them. They are provided here as a resource. They should provide some information about the state of the law. However, a competent lawyer, who from other sources will research the law to insure what is current, should always be employed in matters of importance.

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