This guide provides resources for Social Work students to investigate the history and context of statutes, court decisions, and other policies related to the Social Work profession.
Click on the "I agree" button to begin. How far back cases go depends on the county (see When Wisconsin Counties Began Using CCAP). Case information is kept on WCCA for 10 years or the minimum period of time for the case type as set by the supreme court rules, whichever is longer.
This links to a set of online and video publications by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau about understanding and using Wisconsin legislative materials.
The Wisconsin State Law Library's Wisconsin Law web page provides links to courts (federal and state) in Wisconsin, legislative and executive branch resources, and more.
On the All Content tab (under the search box) select "Statutes & Court Rules."
Select the specific state.
If you know the chapter number of your statute, you can search for it using the index. You can select any chapter to drill down into the statutes or you can search for keywords using the search bar at the top.
In a box on the right, you can find other tools such as the Popular Name Table. This helps you look up the official number and title of the statute if it commonly goes by another name. (For example, Meghan's Law (the establishment of a sex offender registry) in WI is actually ST 301.45.)
If the statute you look up is amended or repealed, Westlaw will flag the statute with a red flag. It will provide you with the name of the act that supersedes it.
To get a sense of the history of a statute, you can use Westlaw to help you search:
When you are reading the text of a statute, you can find out more historical information by going to the History and Context & Analysis tabs that are located underneath the title of the statute.
Under the History tab you will find sources for more information about past texts, proposed changes, and the legislative process. Our subscription to Westlaw does not include access THROUGH WESTLAW to most of these links. You can find the actual texts of these documents through resources on the Wisconsin Law page of this guide.
Under the Context & Analysis tab you will see a link for Law Review and Journal Commentaries. These will be articles in Law Reviews or other scholarly journals about the issues and context of the statute.
