2013 Maryland Code
STATE GOVERNMENT
§ 2-1238 - Duties -- Legal affairs

§2-1238.

In addition to any duties set forth elsewhere, the Office shall:

(1) on request of a member of the General Assembly, analyze and report on:

(i) the laws of any state on a specific subject and all of the available information about the practical operation and effect of those laws; and

(ii) the acts and records of any state;

(2) compile information on and analyze any matter that is the subject of proposed legislation;

(3) on request of a member of the General Assembly, prepare or help to prepare a bill or resolution that, unless the member specifies otherwise, conforms to the style manual of the Office;

(4) provide analyses of proposed and emergency regulations of Executive Branch agencies;

(5) make recommendations for the reclassification, rearrangement, renumbering, rewording, and other formal revision of the public general laws of Maryland;

(6) make recommendations for appropriate systems to collect and publish:

(i) the public local laws;

(ii) executive orders; and

(iii) the regulations of units of the Executive Branch of the State government;

(7) carry on continuous full time formal revision of statutory law for the General Assembly by preparing and submitting to the General Assembly recommendations for the repeal or modification of statutes that are obsolete, inconsistent with another statute, unconstitutional, or otherwise in need of formal revision;

(8) correct manifest spelling, grammatical, or clerical errors or errors of addition or omission in the Code maintained by the Department, and include any such correction in the annual corrective bill for ratification by the General Assembly;

(9) maintain the clarity, simplicity, and consistency of style of statutory law;

(10) have a style manual for statutory law;

(11) include in the style manual a drafting rule that requires, to the extent practicable, the use of words that are neutral as to gender except for a subject matter that specifically applies only to one gender and except for a name or organizational title;

(12) assign a chapter number to each bill, and a joint resolution number to each joint resolution, that, by operation of law, becomes law without the signature of the Chief Executive, and notify the Secretary of State in writing of these assignments; and

(13) carry out any other function related to legal affairs required by the Executive Director.