What happened on July 1st of this year?
Although significant problems remained, gradually over the years the General Assembly and its staff addressed a number of these concerns. But as of July 1st of this year, 2014, the program has taken a giant step backward. That was the date when:
- The online 2013 Indiana Code was updated to reflect the legislative changes made by the 2014 General Assembly;
- Its predecessor, the 2013 Indiana Code, was retained, but its familiar easy, speedy access and availability via both html and pdf versions, has been scrapped.
The replacement: a s-l-o-w, complex, non-intuitive, multi-step system requiring much effort by the user to find the even most basic information. And this new system does not become any easier the more you use it.
What is this so important?
Because for the majority of Indiana’s citizens, including many lawyers and judges, the online Indiana Code, maintained by the General Assembly, is the main (or only) way to access Indiana’s statute law.