Zone searches
Legislative documents are set with a defined format that allows you to restrict your search to a certain part, or zone, of a document.
Creating a single zone search
Public LegSearch makes it possible to restrict your search to a certain part, or zone, of a document. For example, RCWs have captions, text, histories, and notes, and you can indicate that you want to search only the designated part of the section. You could tell LegSearch to find only those bills that have the word “trout” in the bill title.
- Select the Bill & law documents tab.
- Click the Zones button.
- The following screen appears.
- Click in the first Search Terms field, then type your search term(s).
- Click the zone name from the dropdown list, for example, Text.
- Click the Search button to run the search.
Zones are only available for select documents indexed under bill & law documents. See examples below.
Combining zone searches
You can search for a term in one document zone and another term in a different document zone. This is referred to as combining zone searches.
- Select the Bill & law documents tab.
- Click the Zones button.
- Repeat steps 4-5 above in the singe zone search.
- To add more zone search criteria, click the Operator list dropdown, then click And or Or.
- Click the And operator if you want both conditions to be met. For example, if trout is in the first zone
and salmon is in the second zone, only those documents containing both trout and salmon would be
returned. - Click the Or operator if you want either condition to be met. For example, if trout is in the first
zone and salmon is in the second zone, the returned documents would contain either or both terms.
- Click the And operator if you want both conditions to be met. For example, if trout is in the first zone
- Click in the second Search Terms field, and add your search term(s) and zone.
- Click the Search button to run the search.
Zones are only available for select documents indexed under bill & law documents. See examples below.
Historical documents and zones
LegSearch documents were added to the system during different years and biennia. Zones for the document types also began at different times. The following table summarizes when document types and zones were added to LegSearch.
| Document type | Begins | Zones available |
|---|---|---|
| Amendments | 1991-92 | 2005-26 |
| Bills | 1985-86 | 2003-04 |
| Concurrent resolutions | 1985-86 | 2003-04 |
| Joint memorials | 1985-86 | 2003-04 |
| Joint resolutions | 1985-86 | 2003-04 |
| Passed Legislature | 1985-86 | 2003-04 |
| Resolutions | 1991-92 | 2003-04 |
| Session laws | 1991-92 | 2003-04 |
| Vetoes | 1991-92 | 2003-04 |
| Initiatives | 1989-90 | 2015-16 |
| Bill reports | 1987-88 | None |
| Washington State Register | 1997 | None |
| Journals | 1993 | None |
| RCWs | Not applicable | Available |
| WACs | Not applicable | Available |
Document zones by type and location
The following table indicates the zone names, the documents affected, and the zone’s location in the document.
| Zone name | Documents affected | Document search location |
|---|---|---|
| BeginningSection | Bills Passed Leg Session Laws |
Section jingle, e.g., RCW 81.04.010 and 1993 c 427 s 9 are each amended to read as follows |
| CaptionsTitles | Bills Passed Leg Session Laws RCWs WACs |
Full bill title, e.g., AN ACT RELATING TO….. RCW caption at the beginning of each section; RCW chapter name in the Chapter Digest; RCW title name in the Title Digest WAC caption in the WAC Digest; WAC chapter name in WAC Chapter Digest; WAC Title name in the Title Digest |
| Citations | RCWs WACs |
RCW section number (AKA citation or cite) e.g., 1.04.010 WAC section number (AKA citation or cite) e.g., 173-100-010 |
| Dissections | WACs | SLC-reserved zone search |
| EffectiveDate | Session Laws WACs |
Date legislation became effective, e.g., EFFECTIVE DATE: 6/12/08 SLC-reserved zone searches |
| History | RCWs WACs |
Follows the text of the section and appears in square brackets; indicates when the section was amended |
| Notes | RCWs WACs |
Annotator’s Note Reviser’s Note Cross-reference Note Reviser’s Note |
| SLPL | Passed Leg Session Laws |
The session law (SL) chapter and year, e.g., Chapter 283 of 1999 or passed legislation (PL) |
| Sponsors | Bills Passed Leg Session Laws |
The member(s) who sponsored the legislation |
| Text | Bills Passed Leg Session Laws RCWs WACs |
Text of the document, as opposed to citations, captions, histories and notes |
Document zone samples
Bill document

Passed legislature document

Session law document

RCW title digest

RCW chapter digest

RCW section

WAC title digest

WAC chapter digest

WAC section


