OCPF has created two new features to assist the public with finding the legal documents available on our
website:
Searchable Database
This feature is available from the navigation bar -- click on "Legal
Resources" and then "Searchable Database."
The OCPF website now has a searchable database that contains:
- All sections of Chapter 55, the Massachusetts campaign finance law;
- All sections of Chapter 55C, the public financing law;
- All sections of OCPF's regulations, 970 CMR, the Code of Massachusetts Regulations; and
- OCPF's:
- Interpretive Bulletins (IB),
- Memoranda,
- Advisory Opinions (AO), and
- Guidance Letters (GL).
The database is searchable by keyword and has additional advanced search options.
Searching by Keyword:
You can search for documents in the database by entering any search word or phrase. The database
is designed to support wildcard searches, so you can also search by typing in part of a word.
For example, to search the database for all information on committee reimbursements to candidates, you
could enter "reimb" in the search field. The search engine will return every document, regulation
or section of the law that contains matches for the wildcard search -- "reimburse", "reimbursee",
"reimbursed", "reimbursement", etc.
Advanced Options
The following search options are available by clicking on the "Advanced Options" button:
- Search Within Results: You can enter a second search word or phrase to narrow the results of the
first search.
- Document ID: If you are looking for a particular section of the law or regulations, or know the
number of the document you seek, you can enter the number in this field to retrieve the document from
the database.
- Related Topic: You can search for a document based on the topic to which it relates. See
more about Legal Topics, below.
- Related Subtopic: Legal Topics are divided into subtopics for easier searching. You must
first select a topic before you can select a subtopic for searching. See more about Legal
Topics, below.
- Related Law Section: A search by law section will return all of the documents related to that
section.
- Related Regulation Section: Related Law Section: A search by law section will return all
of the documents related to that section.
- Date Range (From - To): You can search for documents based on their date of issue.
Legal Topics
This feature is available from the navigation bar -- click on "Legal
Resources" and then "Legal Topics."
Every OCPF document, section of the regulations and section of the law has been associated with a topic
in the Searchable Database. Most of the topics have been further divided into subtopics to make it
easier to search for documents. The Legal Topics page contains a listing of all of the topics and
subtopics used in the Searchable Database.
OCPF's advisory opinions and guidance letters are also directly accessible from the Legal Topics
page. If you click on a topic button, you can view its associated subtopics. If you click on a
subtopic button, you can view all of the advisory opinions and guidance letters associated with that
subtopic.
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