florida legal-research statutes legal-writing
Meaning of Florida statute history abbreviations
<p>I'm trying to find out how to read the following abbreviations found in the short "history" section at the bottom of a Florida statute website. For example:
"s. 54, ch. 88-1; s. 30, ch. 88-277; s. 36, ch. 91-110"</p>

<p>I would like to follow these references to learn the history of statute, but I'm not sure what they mean or how to follow them. </p>

<p>In case it is helpful, here is <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0700-0799/0760/Sections/0760.23.html" rel="nofollow">a link</a> to a statue page with such history information.</p>

<p>Found the answer in <a href="http://www.aallnet.org/sections/rips/pdfs/17th-Legal-Research-Teach-In/brownflstatslegislativehistoryresearch.pdf" rel="nofollow">this research guide</a>: s.54, ch.88-1 means section 54 of the 1st law passed by the 1988 legistlature, which can be found in the <a href="http://laws.flrules.org/" rel="nofollow">Laws of Florida</a>. Similarly, s.30, ch.88-277 is section 30 of the 277th law passed by the 1988 legislature.</p>
