In statutory interpretation, California courts look to the intention of the legislature. California Code of Civil Procedure § 1859, states that "i]n the construction of a statute the intention of the Legislature . . . is to be pursued, if possible." Legislative history documents such as committee reports and hearings can be used to assist courts in determining legislative intent. Therefore, law students and lawyers should know how to find these documents.
California Codes - by topic
California statutes currently in force are arranged into 29 topics in the California codes. Each law has a section number within a particular code, for example, California Code of Civil Procedure, Section 6 (Code Civ. Proc. § 6), or California Family Code, Section 3084 (Fam. Code § 3084). The California codes are available for free on the California Legislature's website at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/. Current statutes, along with annotations (explanations, citing cases, etc.), can be found in Deering's California Codes Annotated (either in print or on Lexis), or West's Annotated California Codes (either in print or on Westlaw).
California Statutes - arranged chronologically
Once a bill is enacted into law, it is assigned a chapter number. You can find the year and chapter number on the California Legislature's free website when viewing the code section on the California Legislature's website at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/, or in the credits following the text of the code in Deering's California Codes Annotated (either in print or on Lexis) or West's Annotated California Codes (either in print or on Westlaw). For example, if you look up California Penal Code section 851.9, you will see that the code section was added by Stats. 2003, chp. 792 (chapter 792 in the year 2003), and was amended by Stats. 2009, chp. 372 (chapter 372 in the year 2009).
California Bills (prior to enactment into law)
When a new bill is introduced the the California legislature, it is assigned a bill number. Bill numbers continue consecutively for a two-year legislative term, and then begin again. Some of these bills are enacted into law at which point they are assigned chapter numbers (see above), while other bills never become law. You can find the bill number for a code section when viewing the code section on the California Legislature's website at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/, or in the credits following the text of the code in Deering's California Codes Annotated (either in print or on Lexis) or West's Annotated California Codes (either in print or on Westlaw). For example, if you look up California Penal Code section 851.9 you will see that the code section was added by Stats. 2003, chp. 792, which was originally S.B. 599 (Senate Bill 599), introduced during the 2003-04 legislative session.
Alternatively, if you already know the chapter number, you can use it to find the bill number by looking it up on the California Legislature's Website, leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ (click on "Bill Information"), or in the California Sumary Digest (which can also be found in the Statutes and Amendments to the Codes).
California Legal Research by 
Legal Research in California by 
Sometimes you just need to pay someone to do the research for you. Here are some resources in California: