Washington, DC (March 1, 2011) — Legal publisher Fastcase today announces a partnership with the Philadelphia Bar Association to provide free access to one of the world’s most comprehensive legal research libraries. Beginning March 1, 2011, any law firm whose attorneys are all members of the Philadelphia Bar Association will receive free and unlimited access to smarter legal research tools and the comprehensive Fastcase online legal research system.

Bar members will get free access to Fastcase’s Pennsylvania and select federal law libraries, as well as the opportunity to subscribe individually to the Fastcase nationwide Premium subscription for $195 per member per year (the service normally costs $995 per year).

In addition to favorable pricing for individual members, Fastcase is providing substantial discounts for large law firms that subscribe to Fastcase’s Enterprise Edition. Many Amlaw 200 firms are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars while enjoying smarter research with Fastcase.

“This innovative service will be a great new resource for firms whose Philadelphia lawyers are all members of our bar,” said Rudolph (Rudy) Garcia, Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. “We will provide Pennsylvania state and federal cases, statutes and rules for free. In addition, the full nationwide database will be available at a substantial discount. This will greatly reduce the legal research costs incurred by our members and their clients.”

Fastcase continues to democratize the law by making the law more accessible to more people. Currently the company provides free premium legal research to more than 500,000 subscribers, in dozens of AmLaw 200 law firms, 20 state bar associations and dozens of voluntary bar associations and law schools. It also provides access to legal research through award-winning free mobile apps on the iPhone and iPad.

Through the Philadelphia Bar Association partnership, more than 13,000 attorneys can now access legal research tools and databases for free through the Bar’s website, www.philadelphiabar.org – a service that would otherwise cost lawyers and law firms hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. The service is provided as a member benefit and is unrestricted by time or number of transactions, with unlimited printing, reference assistance, and customer service included for free.

The Philadelphia Bar Association is America’s first chartered metropolitan bar association and Pennsylvania’s largest local bar association. Its partnership with Fastcase reflects the Bar’s commitment to providing its members with outstanding services that enhance their practice.

“What a year of explosive growth – we just launched benefits with the DC Bar and Georgia Bar, and are so pleased to now be partnering with the oldest bar association in the nation,” said Phil Rosenthal, Fastcase President. “We are excited to bring smarter legal research – and smarter ways of reducing overhead – to the great firms of Philadelphia. Together with the Bar, we expect to save the top 25 firms of Philadelphia alone nearly $5M.”

Fastcase was founded 11 years ago by two attorneys seeking to democratize the law and build smarter tools for legal research. Fastcase has gained overwhelming support from state bar associations, many of which have upgraded to Fastcase from LexisNexis, Casemaker, and Versuslaw in the last year.

Fastcase has gained very strong momentum in the legal research market. Fastcase was voted #1 in Law Technology News’s inaugural Customer Satisfaction Survey, finishing first in 7 out of 10 categories over traditional research providers Westlaw and LexisNexis. Fastcase’s free apps for iPhone and iPad have dominated the category, winning the prestigious New Product of the Year award from the American Association of Law Libraries. And Fastcase joined Apple, Google, Twitter, and others in the prestigious EContent 100 listing of companies that matter most in the digital economy.

About Fastcase

As the smarter alternative for legal research, Fastcase 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 500,000 subscribers from around the world. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.fastcase.com.

About The Philadelphia Bar

The 13,000-member Philadelphia Bar Association, founded in 1802, is America’s first chartered metropolitan bar association and Pennsylvania’s largest local bar association. As such, it is a keystone in the ongoing developments of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania legal systems. With more than 200 years of dedicated service to stand on, the Philadelphia Bar Association is firmly rooted in the Philadelphia community as a steady and reliable bellwether. For more information, visit www.philadelphiabar.org.

Washington, DC (February 1, 2011) — Legal publisher Fastcase and the D.C. Bar today announced a partnership that will provide all active and judicial members of the D.C. Bar with free access to the Washington, D.C. libraries in Fastcase’s comprehensive online legal research system.

Beginning February 1, 2011, more than 70,000 attorneys will receive free and unlimited access to one of the nation’s largest law libraries through the D.C. Bar website, www.dcbar.org. The service is unrestricted by time or number of transactions, and unlimited printing, reference assistance, and customer service are included for free.

The D.C. Bar is one of the nation’s largest bar associations, representing almost 10 percent of all attorneys in the United States. Its partnership with Fastcase reflects the Bar’s commitment to providing its members with outstanding services that enhance their practice.

“The D.C. Bar is excited to announce this new benefit and free resource for our members,” said Katherine Mazzaferri, Chief Executive Officer of the D.C. Bar. “Our members range from local solo and small firm attorneys to global law firm leaders, so offering free access to Fastcase is a valuable benefit that our entire membership can appreciate.”

Members will get free access to Fastcase’s D.C. law libraries, as well as the ability to subscribe individually to the Fastcase nationwide Premium subscription for $195 per member per year (the service normally costs $1,140 per year). Law firms can get even larger discounts by subscribing to Fastcase’s Enterprise Edition.

“A member benefit like this is difficult to value, but comparable services cost at least $2,000 per attorney per year, making Fastcase worth more than $140 million per year to members of the D.C. Bar,” said Ed Walters, Fastcase CEO. “Fastcase’s approach to research harnesses the power of smarter research tools. We can provide better service at high volumes, which makes partnerships like the D.C. Bar such an effective win-win proposition.”

With the addition of the D.C. Bar partnership, Fastcase now provides free premium legal research to more than 500,000 subscribers, in dozens of AmLaw 200 law firms, 20 state bar associations and dozens of voluntary bar associations and law schools.

“That makes Fastcase by far the largest legal research service outside of Westlaw and LexisNexis,” said Phil Rosenthal, Fastcase President. “Fastcase is larger than Loislaw and Bloomberg Law combined. And those numbers are paid subscribers only — they don’t include users of Fastcase’s award-winning, free mobile apps.”

Fastcase was founded 11 years ago by two attorneys seeking to democratize the law and build smarter tools for legal research. Fastcase has gained overwhelming support from state bar associations, many of which have upgraded to Fastcase from LexisNexis, Casemaker, and Versuslaw in the last year.

“We’re excited to work with the D.C. Bar,” said Rosenthal. “We are a D.C.-based company, and have spent countless hours practicing law on the same side of the desk as many of the D.C. Bar members, so we understand the importance of saving time, keeping costs competitive, and using the right tool for the job.”

Fastcase has gained very strong momentum in the legal research market in 2010. Fastcase was voted #1 in Law Technology News’s inaugural Customer Satisfaction Survey, finishing first in 7 out of 10 categories over traditional research providers Westlaw and LexisNexis. Fastcase’s free apps for iPhone and iPad have dominated the category, winning the prestigious New Product of the Year award from the American Association of Law Libraries. And Fastcase joined Apple, Google, Twitter, and others in the prestigious EContent 100 listing of companies that matter most in the digital economy.

About Fastcase

As the smarter alternative for legal research, Fastcase 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 500,000 subscribers from around the world. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.fastcase.com.

About The D.C. Bar

Created by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1972, the D.C. Bar is the second largest unified bar association in the United States. The D.C. Bar’s core functions, supported by member dues, are the registration of lawyers, operation of a lawyer disciplinary system, maintenance of a Clients’ Security Fund, and certain other administrative operations. The D.C. Bar serves over 95,000 member attorneys, which represents nearly 10 percent of all attorneys in the United States. For more information, visit www.dcbar.org.

Here are some of our favorites:

Offer and acceptance in contract formation

Civil Procedure 1: Personal Jurisdiction

Like the original Fastcase app, Fastcase for the iPad is available as a free download in the iTunes store, allowing you to search our comprehensive library of state and federal primary law for free.

Fastcase for the iPad gives you instant access to an entire set of case law reporters and statute books wherever you are, making the iPad the only legal pad you need in your briefcase.

What’s New:

- Even cleaner and sleeker navigation in high definition.

- Access your complete list of search results when viewing the full text of a document.

- Choose from 5 different font sizes using the font slider.

- Easily search within a document using the “Find” bar.

- Manage (and delete) your save documents using an improved saving feature.

Press and Reviews

- Click here for the official press release.
- Review by Josh Auriemma of Legal Geekery.
- Review by Jeff Richardson of  iPhone JD.
- Review by Greg Lambert of 3 Geeks Law Blog
- Review by Christi of PadGadget
- Review by Bonnie Shucha of WisBlawg

For more information, visit www.fastcase.com/ipad.

Download the app here.

Washington, D.C. (July 7, 2010) — Legal publisher Fastcase debuted its free mobile legal research app for the iPad yesterday in a preview for industry professionals. Like Fastcase’s award-winning iPhone app, the new iPad edition is a free download, and gives free access to the company’s nationwide law libraries of state and federal case law and statutes.

And like the iPhone app, Fastcase’s iPad app is the first of its kind for legal research on the go. The app will be available to the general public in the iTunes App Store in a few days.

The new iPad app is similar to the popular Fastcase iPhone app, but it also provides users with additional features made possible by the larger screen. Among other new features, the iPad includes new results lists on a side panel in the document screen, as well as a new navigation environment for browsing statutes.

Fastcase, the leader in mobile legal research, continues to provide smarter tools for legal researchers. Fastcase for the iPad is a “universal” app, which doubles as an update for the iPhone app and an all-new app for iPad, all in the same application. When opened on the iPhone, it will be an updated version of the iPhone app. When opened on the iPad, the application detects the different hardware and opens the iPad version of the software.

Fastcase’s iPhone app was the first legal research app for iPhone, and was recently awarded the prestigious 2010 New Product of the Year Award by the American Association of Law Libraries. In its launch month, Fastcase was featured on the Apple App Store home page, and for several weeks was a more popular download in the App Store than Microsoft’s search engine Bing.

“The future of legal research is mobile devices – ubiquitous computing and access anywhere.” said Ed Walters, CEO of Fastcase. “The mobile platform is what’s next for legal research, and Fastcase is going to be a major player in this emerging market.”

Legal technology experts who recently previewed the iPad app are praising Fastcase for the latest mobile addition. “Legal research on the iPad could be a game-changer and Fastcase has set the bar exceptionally high,” said Joshua Auriemma, founder of LegalGeekery.com. “In a time where many legal companies are slow to adopt new technology, it would have been completely understandable for Fastcase to have rushed this app out the door in order to be the first legal research app for the iPad. Impressively, this app doesn’t feel rushed at all. No corners have been cut, no major features seem to be missing, and still, they’re the first on the market. Kudos for that.”

Attorney Jeff Richardson of iPhoneJD added in his review “I don’t own an iPad yet, but apps like this push me closer towards getting one.”

Fastcase for the iPad will be available in the iTunes store in early July (search for Fastcase), or you can find more information at www.fastcase.com/iPad.

About Fastcase
As the smarter alternative for legal research, Fastcase 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.com has more than 380,000 subscribers from around the world, and the company recently launched the Fastcase Public Library of Law (www.plol.org), the world’s largest free legal research site for consumers and lawyers alike. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.fastcase.com, or Fastcase’s legal research blog at www.fastcase.blogspot.com.

“In the Likelihood to Recommend” category, 50% of respondents gave Fastcase the highest rating of “Very” (compared to 26.5% for LexisNexis and 20.4% for Westlaw).  These numbers didn’t seem to surprise Greg Lambert of 3 Geeks and a Law Blog.

“Fastcase has worked very hard to break the attorney’s belief that Westlaw and Lexis are the only resources that they have at their disposal to conduct quality legal research…As a law librarian you really need to get on top of these products and understand how to use them, and how to train others to use them. This is one of those situations where your skills are needed by your firm in order to help push costs down.”

Fastcase also had the highest “Excellent” ratings for Products/services information in vendor literature, Ease of Installation, Customer service responsiveness, Ease of Integration into firm workflow, and Features and functions.

Westlaw ranked highest in one category, with 37.6% rating its availability of training as “Excellent” (narrowly edging Fastcase at 37.5%).  LexisNexis finished first in one category, Ease of integration with other technology, with 25.9% of respondents rating its products as “Excellent” (and narrowly edging Fastcase at 25.0%).

According to Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, the survey was a follow-up to the annual LTN Vendor Awards, which are self-nominated.

Kevin Iredell, vice president of ALM’s Legal Intelligence unit, got the idea for the LTN Vendor Satisfaction Survey after administering the LTN Vendor Awards, where vendors self-nominated their products and services, and subscribers voted via an online poll. “We decided to do this survey based on feedback from IT and information services professionals,” he says. “When we announced the LTN vendor awards in the past, inevitably we’d get calls asking for more data and richer results.”

So the first confidential online survey was conducted from Jan. 29 to April 9, 2010. (LTN’s editorial team was not involved in the process.)

Invitations were sent to professionals in law firms, and the link to the survey was also available on and publicized via the LTN website. Of the 610 men and women who expressed interest, 505 were deemed “qualifying respondents” eligible to complete the survey because they have a significant role in purchasing, evaluating, or recommending legal technology for a law firm.

Bay also points out that respondents’ #1 criteria for choosing a vendor is customer service, which is not new news to our team at Fastcase.  From the outset, we’ve invested heavily in training, webinars, video tutorials, and live support by telephone or live chat (and no phone trees).  Even though we’ve built the smartest and most intuitive tools in the business, we back them up with industry-leading reference assistance and support.

Thanks to everyone for the great rankings and recognition!

Florida’s election laws are in the news again, and this time for a decidedly technology-forward reason. Florida’s House of Representatives recently passed Technology in Elections Act (HB 869).  [St. Petersblog 2.0] [Google Public Policy Blog].

As the Obama campaign showed us, social media and other Internet technologies are becoming an integral part of modern campaign efforts because they empower candidates to get the word out to the masses quickly and cheaply.  But as campaign communications move to the web, some are wondering, can state election laws keep up?

Many states have transparency laws that govern campaign advertising and impose disclosure requirements. These are the laws that you can thank for the “I approve this message”-style disclaimers. Most of these laws were written without technologies like Facebook, Twitter, AdWords in mind, and there has been confusion in some areas about whether and how the laws apply to internet advertising and other forms of communication on the web.

For example, Scott Wagman, a candidate in the 2009 St. Petersburg mayoral election, found himself the subject of a complaint submitted to the Florida Elections Commission as a result of his Google AdWords campaign. The complaint charged that Wagman’s campaign used the names of his opponents as keywords. This meant that if someone searched for the name of Wagman’s opponents, Google would display an ad directing the person to Wagman’s campaign website. [TampaBay.com]

While this AdWords strategy itself raises some interesting issues (it may strike some as brilliant and others as sinister), it wasn’t the keywords that were the problem.  According to the complaint, the problem with Wagman’s strategy was that his ads did not contain the political disclaimer required by Section 106.143(1)(a) of the Florida Statutes.

The Florida Election Commission investigated the complaint and ultimately concluded that there was “no probable cause to charge [Wagman]” with the violation. They reasoned that although Wagman’s ads did not contain the required disclaimer, his actions were not willful. After all, Google’s ads only have two lines of text making it virtually impossible to fit the entire required disclaimer into the allotted space.

Florida’s new law attempts to strike a balance between the need for transparency and candidates’ desire to avail themselves of new technologies. For example, pursuant to HB 869, if a “paid link” on the web “is no more than 200 characters” and links “to another Internet website that [includes the disclaimer]” then the paid link need not include the disclaimer itself.

-For the full text of the bill, click here.
-For the Florida House of Representative’s Staff Analysis of the bill, click here.
-For the Florida FEC’s decision regarding the Wagman complaint (via Tampabay.com), click here.

What do you think of Florida’s new law? Are there other states that have enacted something similar?

Send us your comments at comments@fastcase.com or post on our Facebook page.

And drop us a line at comments@fastcase.com to let us know what you think.

By now you have probably heard about the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) big win against file-sharing service, LimeWire.  If not, you can check out excellent coverage of Judge Kimba Wood’s summary judgment decision, issued on May 11, via the New York Times, CNET, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

While reading the 59-page opinion, one nugget that caught our eye was that one of the factors that persuaded Judge Wood that LimeWire had “purposefully marketed” to folks known to be copyright infringers, was the company’s selection of terms for Google AdWords campaign such as: “napster mp3″, “napster download”, kazaa morpheus”, and “mp3 free download” .

We know that Google AdWords has been a battle ground in the arena of trademark infringement.  Google has historically allowed companies to purchase keywords for AdWords campaigns even if the trademark to the keyword is owned by a competitor (albeit with a number of restrictions).  This has made Google and its AdWords advertisers frequent targets of trademark suits.   Interestingly, Google recently scored a victory on this front in a suit filed by language software company, Rosetta Stone.  In the suit, Rosetta Stone, alleged that Google was liable for trademark infringement for selling its trademarked keywords to third parties.  The suit was dismissed by Judge Gerald Lee of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virgnia.  [Rosetta Stone Press Release] [CNET]

Could the LimeWire suit be the first time that a party’s selection of terms for an AdWords campaign has been used as evidence of copyright infringement?  If it’s not, we are sure you will set us straight.

Write to us at info@fastcase.com if you know of an earlier copyright suit in which AdWords keywords were an issue.

The most prominent of our selection for today is 24-year old, Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986). In this historic case, the Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor cannot use preemptory challenges (no-cause dismissal of jurors) to dismiss jurors based on race.

Today is also the 31st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418 (1979). In this decision the Court raised the burden of proof required for involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility from “preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing” evidence.

Unless you are an intellectual property lawyer, you may not be familiar with Microsoft v. AT&T, 550 U.S. 437 (2007), a 3-year old decision in which the Supreme Court placed restrictions on the extraterritorial reach of U.S. Patent law. In short, after Microsoft, holders of U.S. software patents face significant barriers in enforcing their U.S. patents overseas.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by The Library of Congress

And here are some other historical happenings from April 30th — courtesy of HistoryOrb.com — a very cool resource:

1803 — the Louisiana purchase was agreed to in principle (it was signed on May 2).

1904 — the ice cream cone debuts at the St. Louis World’s Fair.

2004 — the U.S. media releases controversial photos from Abu Ghraib prison.