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Levin College of Law
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Florida Administrative Law

This guide explains how to research Florida administrative law.

Current Rules

 

Screenshot of flrules.org search page

 

 

There are 74 titles in the FAC, each corresponding to a different agency:List of titles in the Florida Administrative Code

 

Anatomy of a RuleExample of a Rule from the FAC with labeled parts

Proposed Rules

Screenshot of www.flrules.org showing 3 ways to search the FAR

As of October 1, 2012, agencies are required to publish information about many of their proposed and final actions in the Florida Administrative Register (FAR), which is a revised electronic publication on a website managed by the Department of State. Previously, the Department of State published this information in the Florida Administrative Weekly (FAW), which was published weekly in electronic and printed format. Information published in the FAR includes:

  • notices of development of proposed rules and negotiated rulemaking;
  • notices of the intent to adopt, amend, or repeal rules, the adoption of emergency rules, or the intent to adopt, amend, or repeal rules substantively similar to regulations under federal law;
  • notices of changes to and withdrawals
  • notices of public meetings, workshops, and public hearings;
  • notices of petitions for variance or waiver of a rule and petitions for declaratory statements;
  • notices of petitions for administrative determinations and notices that a proposed or existing rule has been declared invalid by an administrative law judge; and
  • notices of requests for exemption from APA requirements and their disposition, reasons for not initiating rulemaking in response to a request to adopt policy, and reasons for exceptions from the Uniform Rules.

1 Florida Administrative Practice § 2.3 (2019) (internal citations omitted). 

Anatomy of a Proposed RuleExample of a Proposed Rule from the FAR, with descriptive labels

Historical Rules

The Florida Administrative Code at www.flrules.org reflects the current rules in force.  Sometimes you have to find what a rule looked like at an earlier time.  To research a historical version of a rule, start with the current rule.  Below the text of the current rule in the FAC you will find the date that the rule was originally enacted, followed by the date(s) of any amendments to the rule.  

For example:Example of a Rule, labeling elements of the history

In this example, if you needed to know the language of Rule 64B5-17.0105 prior to June 3, 2019, you must look at an earlier version of the FAC.  Alternatively, the flrules.org website provides the entire history of the rule, including the language of any earlier versions.  For Rule 64B5-17.0105, the history looks like this:Example of the history of a rule from flrules.org

Note that the flrules.org website includes rules as of January 6, 2006, as well as any amendments since that time.  If you need an earlier rule that is not available on flrules.org, you may be able to find that in print.  The Legal Information Center's collection of Florida administrative law materials includes:

  • each weekly issue of the Florida Administrative Weekly (KFF36. F55) going back to its 1975 inception, though the on-site collection begins with mid-1981; 
  • the 1982 printing of the Florida Administrative Code with annual supplements through 1986 (KFF35 .A24); and
  • the looseleaf printing of the Florida Administrative Code that began in 1990 and was updated through June 2000 (also KFF35 .A24). As a looseleaf collection, content that was superseded has been discarded.

Commercial Databases

Although the Florida Administrative Code is available in several commercial databases, the official version is free at www.flrules.org, and it will always be the most current.