Currently, Pennsylvania does not have one “official” publication that includes all current Pennsylvania laws. Instead, the current Pennsylvania statutes are split into two groupings: Consolidated and Unconsolidated. Because of this, multiple resources should be used when researching Pennsylvania statutes.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly provides free online access to both the Consolidated and Unconsolidated Statutes. Westlaw provides free access to both the consolidated and unconsolidated statutes on the Unofficial Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes from Westlaw website. See below for more details.
See the Overview page of this guide for more information about consolidated statutes, unconsolidated statutes, and unofficial statute compilations.
Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Pennsylvania General Assembly
The official, unannotated version of the consolidated statutes. Contains the consolidated statutes (Pa.C.S.) only. Does not contain the unconsolidated statutes.
Can search by keyword, search by title and section number, and browse by title.
Legislative source information can be found by accessing the "History" of the statute title. Additional legislative source information, like "Prior Laws" and "Uniform Laws", is not available through the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes on the General Assembly's website.
Pennsylvania Unconsolidated Statutes Pennsylvania General Assembly
The acts as they were passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in chronological order. Please note that the General Assembly’s website does not include amendatory acts prior to 1990.
The Unconsolidated Statutes can be searched by keyword or act number. Users can also browse the Unconsolidated Statutes by act name and act year.
Unofficial Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes from Westlaw
Purdon’s Pennsylvania Statutes is not an official publication of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This site provides free access to both the consolidated and unconsolidated Purdon’s Pennsylvania Statutes and Constitution, as compiled and maintained by the editorial staff of Thomson Reuters, and made available in an unannotated version under agreement with the Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau.
Can search by keyword and browse by title.