Oklahoma statutes may be accessed on the internet for free on the Oklahoma State Courts Network, http://www.oscn.net.    Although not the official version of the statutes, the legal community and Oklahoma citizens find the statutory code on OSCN to be quite reliable. 

   From the homepage, click on the Legal Research link from the row of links across the top of the page.  The Legal Research page contains many links to Oklahoma primary law and other legal items.  Click on "Oklahoma Statutes Citationized" to search or browse the Oklahoma statutes.  All 85 titles are presented and can be searched individually or all at once.

   Oklahoma statutes may be accessed online for free in the College of Law library from the WestPAC computers located near the Reference Desk.  Public patrons must request a guest login from the Circulation Desk in order to log onto the WestPAC computers. 

   The Oklahoma statutory code is divided into 85 titles, with each title covering a designated topic.  The topics/titles are alphabetically arranged:  Title 1 is Abstracting and Title 85 is Workers' Compensation.  The statute sections within each title are numbered.

   The official state code, Oklahoma Statutes, is published under the direction of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Justices.  These volumes contain the text of all the state statutes in force, with historical notes following each statute section.  West/ThomsonReuters publishes the official editions of the Oklahoma statutes in hardbound volumes that are updated each year supplement volumes.  Tables and Index volumes are included in the official edition.  The spine of each volume indicates the title or titles contained in that volume.

   For legal research purposes, the commercial version of the statutes, the Oklahoma Statutes Annotated, offers useful features not found in the official Oklahoma Statutes.  The annotated statutes not only contain the same text of the statutes in force, with historical notes following each statute section, but also include library references, cross-references, and very useful case annotations.  Tables volumes and softbound Index volumes are included with this set.        

The Oklahoma Statutes Annotated volumes are updated with annual "pocket parts,"  which are pamphlets inserted into the back of the volume in a pocket designed for that purpose.  A researcher must remember to always check the pocket part to see if the particular statute section being researched has been amended, repealed, renumbered, or changed in any way since the publication of the hardbound volume.  The publisher (West/ThomsonReuters) also supplements the Cumulative Annual Pocket Parts with Interim Update Service pamphlets.

   A Popular Name Table is included in both the official Oklahoma Statutes and the Oklahoma Statutes Annotated. Located in the back of the last Index volume, the Popular Name Table allows the researcher to locate exactly where in the statutes a particular act (Environmental Quality Act, Uniform Arbitration Act, etc.) has been codified.

Per House Bill 1799, 57th Legislature, 2nd Session, effective 11/01/2020 (Okla. Stat. Title 75, §13) the Oklahoma Secretary of State is directed to provide Oklahoma’s official laws in electronic format; therefore, beginning in 2021, state agencies no longer have the authority to purchase hard copy (print) Statute books for distribution to previously qualified State organizations. The Oklahoma Secretary of State, to fulfill this requirement, has contracted with Thomson Reuters to provide access to the Oklahoma Statutes.   Oklahoma’s Official Statutes are now freely available in a digital format via link from https://www.sos.ok.gov/gov/annualDistribution.aspx or directly at https://govt.westlaw.com/okjc/Index?.

This guide was originally created by Jennifer Gerrish who has retired.  It is now updated and maintained by the Law Library Reference Staff.