Welcome to the Office of Administrative Law Website

The Office of Administrative Law (OAL) ensures that agency regulations are clear, necessary, legally valid, and available to the public. OAL is responsible for reviewing administrative regulations proposed by over 200 state agencies for compliance with the standards set forth in California's Administrative Procedure Act (APA), for transmitting these regulations to the Secretary of State and for publishing regulations in the California Code of Regulations.

OAL assists state regulatory agencies through a formal training program, as well as through other less formal methods, to understand and comply with the Administrative Procedure Act.

OAL also accepts petitions challenging alleged underground regulations--those rules issued by state agencies which meet the Administrative Procedure Act's definition of a "regulation" but were not adopted pursuant to the APA process.

OAL oversees the publication and distribution, in print and on the Internet, of the California Code of Regulations and the California Regulatory Notice Register.

News/Information

NEW - On August 31, 2010, OAL issued a formal notice of intent to award the contract for the future publication of the Official California Code of Regulations (CCR) to West, a Thomson Reuters business. The new CCR publication contract will take effect January 1, 2011. Please read our Notice of Intent to Award the CCR Contract for details.

LISTS OF REGULATIONS -- currently under review by OAL and a list of recent actions taken by OAL on proposed regulations over the past 45 days. These lists are generated each morning and do not include regulations submitted and action taken during the remainder of the business day.

LIST OF UNDERGROUND REGULATIONS-- A list of underground regulation petitions currently under review. The list includes deadlines for public comment on accepted petitions. This report is generated weekly.

NOTICE REGISTER INDEX -- index to the Notice Register covers the past twelve months and is sorted by agency name. You can find the text of a notice under the Notice Register tab (above), using the publication date or register number to locate the Notice Register in which that notice was published.

CCR PUBLICATION CONTRACT -- OAL has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) concerning the future publication of the California Code of Regulations. Please read our Draft CCR Publication Contract, and our Summary of the CCR Contract Bidder's Conference. Please note also that OAL has issued Addendum #1 to the RFP to reflect the adoption by the Department of General Services of revised General Terms and Conditions for state contract for non-IT services. A summary of follow-up questions and answers to the CCR Publication Contract Bidder's Conference.

CHANGES TO OAL WEBSITE LINKS -- On October 21, 2009, the folder structure of the OAL website changed when OAL switched to a new website management program. If you bookmarked a web page on the OAL website prior to October 21, you may need to create a new bookmark. We may make additional folder changes as part of this transition and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. Please contact OAL at staff@oal.ca.gov if you have difficulty finding a specific page to bookmark.