In its continuous revision system, Florida has a successful method for keeping general statutory law up to date and readily available. Beginning with the 1999 regular session of the Legislature, the Florida Statutes will be published in their entirety annually. Previously, the statutes were published following each odd-year regular session, and a Supplement was published following each even-year regular session. With annual publication of the Florida Statutes, other key features of the continuous revision system will be provided more frequently as well. The Division of Statutory Revision will submit reviser's bills to the Legislature annually rather than every two years. The adoption act, which provides for adoption of the official statutory law of the state, will be submitted to the Legislature to be enacted every year instead of biennially, while the "curing period" will remain 2 years.

The Digest places the user on notice regarding recent changes to the general law. It is intended to be used during the period between the end of the regular session of the Legislature and the publication of the Florida Statutes. In recent years, the Division of Statutory Revision has considerably shortened this time. Several weeks are required to print the Digest and distribute printed copies to users. With the shorter statutes production schedule, this delay inevitably occurs when the information contained in the Digest is most useful. Consequently, the Division of Statutory Revision has decided no longer to print the Digest but rather to publish it on the Internet, where it can be available most quickly.

HOW TO USE THE DIGEST:

· To identify general laws and proposed constitutional amendments that deal with particular subjects, refer to the alphabetic subject index.

· To obtain an abbreviated statement of the content of a particular general law, refer to the summaries section.

· To determine the effective date of a particular general law, refer to the summaries section.

· To establish whether a particular bill was enacted into law, consult the "Conversion Table: Bill Numbers to Session Law Chapter Numbers."

· To determine if an enacted bill was vetoed by the Governor, use the "Table of General Acts Vetoed by the Governor."

· To trace general laws into the structure of the statutes, refer to the "Tracing Table: Session Laws into Chapters of Florida Statutes."

· To determine if an existing statutory section was affected by the recent legislative session, consult the "Tentative Table of Section Changes Made in the Florida Statutes."

The primary goal of the Division of Statutory Revision is to provide the best possible reference publication to the general law of the state as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible cost to the user. We welcome suggestions for improvement of our publications.

Linda S. Jessen, Director
Division of Statutory Revision
(850) 488-8403
stat.rev@leg.state.fl.us