Business law basics tools: build a register of the rules that apply to you

Legal research tools are unusual. The authoritative ones are free, published by the bodies that made the rules. Paid tools mostly repackage the same text with better search.

For a small business, the free layer is enough for the work you should do yourself. The most useful tool in it is not a database but a file you keep: a register of the rules you have decided apply to you. The work you should not do yourself is not a search problem.

What to take away

One row per obligation

One local file does more than any search tool: a register of the rules you have decided apply to you. It costs an hour to start and it turns a repeated research problem into a review problem. Each row has six fields.

A register also gives you something to hand a professional, which shortens the conversation. The business law basics overview explains why a lead is not a source, and the register is where that distinction becomes a habit.

Filling in the publisher and the marker

The publisher column depends on the kind of text. For federal statutes, use the United States Code from the Office of the Law Revision Counsel or GovInfo. For regulations, use the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) and the Federal Register.

Agencies publish their own guidance, and courts publish opinions on their official websites; the Supreme Court of the United States, for example, publishes its opinions on its own site. At the state level, examples include California Legislative Information for statutes and the California Code of Regulations for regulations.

The marker column follows the kind of text. A statute shows the session or year its compiled text runs through. A regulation shows an effective date and a "current as of" line. Agency guidance shows an issue date and whether it has been superseded. A court decision shows the date, the court, and whether it has been appealed.

Most operational detail lives in the regulation row. People search for statutes and then wonder why the text does not answer their question. The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) explains its currency marker plainly, so it is a good model for what to copy into the column.

For states, the reliable route in is the state's own government portal rather than a search engine. The IRS's State Government Websites directory indexes official state sites. Local codes carry a stated date they are current through, and city and county licenses covers how to read them without concluding too much from a use table.

Logging where a rule stands

A rule is not always final. What has been proposed or finalized but not yet folded into the codified text appears in the Federal Register, so a row should say which stage the rule has reached.

The Federal Register explains how a rule gets from a proposal to a text that binds anyone. Reading about that process once makes every state's version easier to understand, since they are shaped similarly. For tracking change over time, who makes the rules and how to track them sets out the routes.

Look for the reader aids before the search box, because they tell you what a collection contains and what it leaves out. And note the difference between the codified text and the recent issuances, because the gap between them is exactly where a change you have not heard about is sitting.

Three checks before a row is logged

Copies of statutes and regulations are everywhere: in summaries, in trade press, in the appendices of vendor material, and in well-meaning reference sites. They may be accurate as of a past date, so check the publisher and the date shown on the official page before relying on a copy.

Failing any check is a research lead. A lead is not a source, and it does not get a row until it passes.

Three free people who fill the gaps

Some entries in the register cannot be settled by reading. Three free human resources do work that no search does.

The small-business counseling network is the first. The SBA and its network of partners offer free or low-cost counseling and training locally, and the resource partners include SCORE, Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), and SBA district offices. SCORE mentoring and SBDC counseling can help sort which problems are routine, which need a professional, and which office publishes the answer.

The second is a lawyer referral service. For example, the San Francisco Bar Association Lawyer Referral and Information Service connects people with lawyers who handle their kind of problem; check your own state or local bar association for a service where you live. The point is not cheap advice. It is getting to the right specialty the first time.

The third is the public and academic library system. The Library of Congress Law Library is a named legal research resource, and local public and law-school libraries may also have research collections and people whose job is finding things in them.

For anything where you need to know what a rule said on a past date, a law library can help locate the relevant version.

What the register does not do

No search tells you whether a rule applies to your facts. That is judgment applied to a jurisdiction. Distrust the confident general answer. No free tool tells you what a court would make of your contract.

The register also feeds the dates you already track through compliance calendars. Nothing in it substitutes for the issuing body: for what a specific office requires, the office answers faster and more reliably than any research. That is the habit license fundamentals is built around.

Common questions

Is a paid legal research service worth it for a small business?

Rarely, for the text itself, since the official versions are free. Paid services sell search quality and editorial notes, which matter for case law at volume. Most small businesses are not there. To read the texts skeptically, start with the official page.

How do I find out what a rule said two years ago?

Ask for the historical version explicitly. Official publishers often keep prior editions or an amendment history, and where they do not, a law library can usually reach one. Never assume the current text was the text then.

The agency's guidance and the regulation seem to say different things. Which do I follow?

That is a real question with a real answer, and it is not one to settle from a page. Guidance tells you how the agency reads its own rule, which matters practically, and it is not the rule. Where the difference could cost you, it is a lawyer question.

How much of this should I do myself?

Enough to arrive at a specific, dated question. Reading a rule to see whether its scope covers you is reasonable work. Deciding what it means when the answer is not obvious is not, and the boundary is usually clear from how quickly you stop finding text and start finding argument.