Vernon’s Texas Codes Annotated in the United States

Introduction

Texas is one of the few U.S. states that have retained a unified code, which uses a single alphanumeric
arrangement of numbering for all statutes. This system makes difficult to accommodate growth in statutory texas law.

The Vernon’s Texas Codes Annotated, together with Vernon’s Texas Statutes Annotated, commonly known as Vernon’s, is a compilation of Texas law that is updated annually.

The Texas Codes

Agriculture Code
Alcoholic Beverage Code
Business and Commerce Code
Business Organization Code
Civil Practice and Remedies Code
Education Code
Election Code
Family Code
Finance Code
Government Code
Health and Safety Code
Human Resources Code
Insurance Code
Labor Code
Local Government Code
Natural Resources Code
Occupations Code
Parks and Wildlife Code
Penal Code
Property Code
Tax Code KFT
Texas Penal Code
Texas Property Code
Transportation Code
Utilities Code
Water Code

Legal Research and Citation

It is useful to look at the legislative history annotations that immediately follow any text of the code. These annotations aer called Historical Notes, Historical and Statutory Notes, Derivation, or Prior Laws. They provide with citations to the legislation that enacted and/or amended the statute.

Check the index which is published annually

After the code has been found, check the annual pocket part to see if the code has been updated or repealed.

A complete record of the Prior Laws and Derivation portion of the legislative history annotations are not available online at the Texas Statutes website. The full statutory history is only in the printed version of the Vernon’s Texas Codes Annotated or Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes Annotated.

Citing the Codes

Cite material in these statutes to the subject codes, or, if appropriate, their supplements. The citation should include the name of the subject matter code, the section number, and a parenthetical including the publisher and year.

Texas Statutes not yet incorporated into the topical Codes

Most statutes not yet incorporated into the topical codes are found in Vernon’s Annotated
Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas. These statutes are organized by articles and
further subdivided into sections.

Vernon’s Annotated Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas also includes four independent codes,
the Business Corporations Act, Code of Criminal Procedure, Insurance Code and Probate Code, that have been codified, but not moved to the Annotated Code.

As the Legislature continues revising and codifying Texas statutes, these independent
codes will be incorporated into the topical codification system.

In 2010, all except three of the eventual topical codes have been compiled or partially compiled.

The codes were the following:
1. Agriculture Code
2. Alcoholic Beverage Code
3. Business and Commerce Code
4. Civil Practice and Remedies Code
5. Corporations and Associations Code
6. Criminal Procedure Code
7. Education Code
8. Election Code
9. Family Code
10. Financial Code
11. Government Code
12. Health and Safety Code
13. Human Resources Code
14. Insurance Code
15. Labor Code
16. Local Government Code
17. Natural Resources Code
18. Occupations Code
19. Parks and Wildlife Code
20. Penal Code
21. Probate Code
22. Property Code
23. Tax Code
24. Transportation Code
25. Utilities Code
26. Water Code

If the law has been codified or only exists in codified form, superseded codified statutes can be
found in alphabetical and chronological order by code, and the specific code’s supplements begin
after the last volume of the code. (Source: Joseph Plumbar, Learning Resources Librarian, “Texas Statutes and Codes”

Vernon’s Texas Codes Annotated