As the saying goes, “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” That phrase also applies to the State Bar membership benefits. The State Bar of Texas has agreed to add Fastcase as a member benefit on top of its already existing Casemaker access. This makes it the first Bar in the country to offer both services. In addition to adding Fastcase, the State Bar of Texas increased the level of subscription to Casemaker to include the premium services of Casecheck+, CiteCheck, and CasemakerDigest to the member benefit. That is a major coup for the Bar.
Fastcase’s access will depend upon the size of your firm. For those under 11 attorneys, you will have access to the premium Fastcase database (all states & fed), for those 11+ attorney firms, you will have access to the Texas plan. Everyone will have access to the mobile apps and to the HeinOnline integration for the covered material.
It is a great day for the State Bar of Texas and its members. Read the Fastcase and SBOT press releases below for more information.
To log in to this free benefit, members will visit the State Bar website at http://www.texasbar.com and log in with their bar number and password. The service is also available via the TexasBarCLE website at http://www.texasbarcle.com/.
PRESS RELEASES
AUSTIN — Texas attorneys now have unprecedented free access to two nationwide legal research services.
The State Bar of Texas has signed an agreement to provide its members free access to Fastcase, one of the nation’s most popular legal research systems. Texas attorneys will continue to receive free access to the Casemaker legal research service, along with expanded premium Casemaker services at no cost. The State Bar of Texas is the first and only bar association to offer its members free access to both Fastcase and Casemaker.
“We are thrilled to offer this free research tool as an additional benefit to Texas attorneys alongside our popular Casemaker service,” said Trey Apffel, 2014-15 State Bar of Texas president. “Part of our mission at the State Bar of Texas is to provide superior online resources and benefits to members which help them better serve their clients. We believe this agreement helps us achieve that.”
With the new Fastcase partnership, 27 state bar associations and more than 800,000 lawyers now have a subscription to Fastcase. The service usually costs $995 a year for an individual subscriber, but State Bar of Texas members will receive two great Fastcase benefits for free, effective immediately.
Firms of 11 lawyers or more will have free access to Fastcase’s extensive Texas Plan, including opinions of the Supreme Court of Texas and courts of appeal back to 1 Tex. 1 (1846), U.S. Supreme Court opinions back to 1 U.S. 1, Fifth Circuit opinions back to 1 F.2d 1, the U.S. Code annotated, the Texas Statutes annotated, the Texas Constitution, and 70 other Texas-specific legal research libraries.
Solo practitioners and firms of 10 lawyers or fewer will have access to Fastcase’s Premium Plan, including all libraries in the Texas Plan, plus nationwide coverage from state and federal courts, state statutes and administrative regulations, as well as court rules, constitutions, and other valuable libraries. To access the scope of coverage on the Web, visit www.fastcase.com/whatisfastcase/coverage.
The agreement provides State Bar of Texas members access to Fastcase’s intuitive legal research tools, training webinars and tutorials, mobile apps, and live customer support. The free member benefit has no restrictions on time or number of transactions and includes unlimited printing, unlimited reference assistance, and unlimited customer service.
Texas attorneys will also have access to annotated statutes from other states, Fastcase’s annotated U.S. Code, transactional access to newspaper articles, federal court filings, and legal forms, and transactional access through HeinOnline to the largest collection of law reviews in the world.
“We’re excited to offer Fastcase’s powerful research tools as a free benefit to Texas lawyers,” Fastcase President Phil Rosenthal said. “Providing the best legal research tools to Texas lawyers will improve the administration of justice and level the playing field for clients. We’re proud to partner with the State Bar of Texas in this effort.”
Casemaker’s expanded offerings include access to premium services (Casecheck+, CiteCheck, and CasemakerDigest) at no cost for all members. These services were previously available only to paid subscribers. Casemaker continues to provide the Administrative Code, Attorney General Opinions from 1947, Texas Case Law since 1886, State Constitution, Federal Court Rules, Texas Session Laws from 1995, State Court Rules, Texas Revised Statutes, including annual archived versions since 2001, as well as a robust federal library.
Casecheck+ is a negative citator system built into Casemaker that validates your research and identifies whether or not your case law citations are still good law. CiteCheck allows researchers to upload a brief (or other document) to Casemaker which quickly creates a table of the cases found, checks the latter case history of the cases cited, and displays any negative later case history. CasemakerDigest delivers daily summaries of state and federal appellate cases classified by practice area.
Casemaker has also added its new Subsequent History feature especially for Texas attorneys. At a glance, researchers can now determine writ and petition history. Casemaker’s new statute annotator feature is now available to Texas attorneys as well. At a click, researchers can quickly get an accurate picture of how the courts have cited, applied, interpreted, and construed each statute.
“We are proud to have provided the Texas lawyers with Casemaker’s online legal research for the past 10 years,” Casemaker CEO David Harriman said. “Our experienced legal editors are committed to providing the most up-to-date cases and statutes available anywhere.”
The State Bar of Texas is an administrative agency of the Supreme Court of Texas that provides educational programs for the legal profession and the public, administers the minimum continuing legal education program for attorneys, and manages the attorney discipline system. For more information, follow the State Bar on Twitter @statebaroftexas, like the State Bar on Facebook at www.facebook.com/statebaroftexas, or visit www.texasbar.com.
Fastcase is a leading legal publisher focused on smarter legal software that democratizes the law, making it more accessible to more people. Using patented software that combines the best of legal research with the best of Web search, Fastcase helps busy users sift through the clutter, ranking the best cases first and enabling the re-sorting of results to find answers fast. Founded in 1999, Fastcase has more than 800,000 subscribers from around the world. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. For more information, follow Fastcase on Twitter at @Fastcase or visit www.fastcase.com.
Since 1999 Casemaker has operated with the single purpose of providing attorneys with affordable access to quality legal research. The company has invested heavily in developing the finest editorial team and state-of-the-art technology to increase speed and search functionality. Attorneys have a product that stands toe-to-toe with the traditional and expensive legal research providers. Casemaker offers a Google-like search engine, accurate citation services, and many organizational features that make research that much faster, easier, and reliable. Attorneys across the United States are using Casemaker’s simple high-definition search on a daily basis to find relevant cases, codes, statutes, and more, fast. Casemaker is based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Follow Casemaker on Twitter @casemakerlegal or Facebook at www.facebook.com/casemakerlegal.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Fastcase is one of the nation’s most popular legal research services. Twenty-seven state bar associations have subscribed to Fastcase, as well as scores of the nation’s largest law firms. With this partnership, more than 800,000 lawyers have a subscription to Fastcase, many through their state bar association. The service ordinarily costs $995 per year for an individual subscriber, but starting today, State Bar of Texas members will get two great Fastcase benefits for free.