The laws passed by the Louisiana Legislature are compiled in a set of books called the Louisiana Statutes Annotated (LSA). Our copy of the LSA is located in the reference collection on the second floor of the library, at the call number KFL 30.5 .W4 A2 (on the short shelves near the Reference Desk).
There is a three-volume paperback index to the LSA, usually shelved at the end of the entire set. You can use the index to look up words related to the subject you need to research and locate statutes on that subject. Also, there are other indexes within the main volumes of the LSA itself; for example, Title 14, which has most of the criminal statutes in the LSA, has its own index in the final volume of that title.
In addition to the text of a specific section or code article, you may also find useful annotations such as citations to books and articles that discuss the statute you find, cross-references to other statutes in the LSA, and case notes. Case notes can be particularly useful; they are court cases that discuss a particular statute and show how courts apply statutes to specific legal situations.
When you find a statute that is useful, you need to check to see if there have been any changes to that statute. The entire LSA is not republished every year to include new laws passed by the Legislature. Instead, an annual set of pocket parts (supplements) are published with new laws and placed in the back of the relevant volumes.
For more information on Louisiana laws, in print and online, see the research Guide, "Louisiana Law and Related Materials." Recent Louisiana laws can be found online at the Louisiana Legislature's website, legis.la.gov - select "Laws" on the top menu.
The LSA consists of six major components:
Civil Code
Code of Civil Procedure
Code of Criminal Procedure
Code of Evidence
Children's Code
Revised Statutes
Specific sections within each component are cited either by article (“Art. 775”) or, for the Revised Statutes, to Title and Section (“4:702”).
General citation rules for statutes are found in Bluebook Rule 12; the listing for Louisian in Table 1 shows you how to correctly cite to each of the above components of the LSA. See The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (20th ed. 2015).
All original content copyright 2022 Loyola University New Orleans College of Law Library. This guide may be used for educational purposes, as long as proper credit is given. This guide may not be sold. Requests to republish or adapt a guide should be directed to the Library Director. Proper credit includes the statement: Written by, or adapted from, Loyola University New Orleans Law Library.