How to read a statute (law)

Started by TimB4 • 8 replies • 6207 views

💬 Join us to post & get advice from 50,000 HOA & Condo leaders.

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

If you serve on a Board or Committee of an Association you are placed in a position of having to read and understand a State or Federal law. Most, including myself, do not have formal training the field of Law. Additionally, most of us don't always want to pony up funds for a legal opinion of the law.

I thought I would start this thread to help others learn how to read, interpret and ultimately apply the many legal documents we use when we serve on the Board or as part of a committee.

First and foremost, if your Association is involved in existing or pending legal action, spend the funds and seek legal advise and/or representation.

I've provided the following to assist:

Nolo Press, How to read a Statute

How to read a Judicial Opinion: A guide for New Law Students

Wikipedia Statutory interpretation

Lesson Plan by Michigan Court on how to interpret laws

The Why, What, Where and How of Reading Statutes and Cases from Leagle web site

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

WOW Tim!,

Thanks for doing the work in preparing this for this excellent post. If Judges and Lawyers cannot agree on interpretation of some of these complicated laws and statutes, we certainly do have valid reasons why we cannot agree on them. This is a useful tool for us. Thanks for putting it up here.

Donna

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 388

Posted:

Great info, Tim, Thx!! I've bookmarked it all.

I might add, that one thing omitted from the "how to read a statute" are the phrases:

1) "notwithstanding any provisions in the community documents", which mean no matter what the community docs say, the state law rules, and
2) "unless otherwise stated stated in the community documents" (or any such "unless" statement referring to the community documents) which means the community documents trump the state law

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

advice from my own perusal of many laws...

read the words that are there, and only those words. Don't add words that you THINK should be there, just read the words of the law.

go back to the preamble of the law, and read what the legislators wrote there. that should tell you more about their intent, scope, ideas, background, etc.. Not all laws have preambles, however.

read any definitions of words that the regulations provide. Use ONLY those definitions when reading the law. Don't assume that when the law say 'home' that they mean anything except what they have defined as a home in the statute. If there are no definitions, then you can use a more common definition of the word (such as that found in the dictionary).

RyanD1 (California)
Posts: 38

Posted:

Tim,

Great Post!

SwanB (Washington)
Posts: 199

Posted:

Tim,
This is a great help and will be bookmarked. I have resources I use for reading and using the legalese I often come into contact in working with nonprofits or helping an organization through the myriad jumble of laws and statues.
Good job.

GeoM (Missouri)
Posts: 28

Posted:

I realize I'm resurrecting an older post, but one which was recently referred. Sorry, but I couldn't get to the links for the statement in boldface:

"First and foremost, if your Association is involved in existing or pending legal action, spend the funds and seek legal advise and/or representation."

In the case of my BOD, the attorney told them to "just keep working around the kitchen table" as regards the collection of dues, as long as 3/4 of the members were willing to continue to pay. This attorney, however, told a member who sought him out just a year prior, that a case against the Declaration regarding the ROA would be a hard one to fight in court since there was a non-amendable cap on the assessments [he called it an "iron-clad" cap]. But here we are, now a year after the kitchen-table remark with him fighting to win a case he had formerly declared unwinnable.

I know most people think they are hiring an attorney to repre$ent their legal right$ in a ca$e, but if you can't see the reason for Chris' ire after seeing that this attorney is apparently only it in for his gain, then I just have to shake my head in disbelief.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

Geo,

You hire an attorney for legal advice, just as you would hire a Doctor for medical advice.

If you're in existing or pending litigation, it's best to seek out legal advice from a local attorney who will have access to all the documents involved and have knowledge of applicable laws. Seeking legal advice elsewhere based on facts as presented (vs. access to all documents and knowledge of applicable laws) would, in my opinion, simply be foolish.

Now, just as there are bad Doctors, there are bad attorneys. They may simply want to milk you for as much cash as they can or they may have simply graduated at the bottom of their class and simply aren't very good at the profession they have chosen.

This is why it's imperative that the individual seeking the advice (be it legal, medical or any other trade/profession) learn as much as they can so they can make an informed decision if the individual giving the advice is any good or not and if it should be followed.

That is the purpose of this thread, to help others learn how to interpret laws/statutes. Their interpretation may or may not be correct. That is why you they should seek out an attorney who is better trained in the interpretation of legalize. Please lets keep this thread on topic.

By the way, I did notice that two of the previously provided links were no longer working. Here are the corrected links:

Lesson Plan by Michigan Court on how to interpret laws

The Why, What, Where and How of Reading Statutes and Cases from Leagle web site

🎯 You've read this entire discussion

Join the conversation with 50,000 HOA & Condo Leaders:

✓ Ask follow-up questions
✓ Share your experience
✓ Get expert advice
✓ Access 350,000 discussions

Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in here