Page 306 - 2024 Orientation Manual

FASTCASE

Computerized Legal Research Benefit for Members of the
Louisiana State Bar Association

At its meeting in January 2005 in Baton Rouge, the LSBA Board of Governors ratified the
Executive Committee's decision to contract with Fastcase, Inc. to provide a computerized legal
research benefit to all members of the Association. This benefit is available free of charge to
every active member of the Association.
Fastcase, built by lawyers and for lawyers, puts the whole American law library on the desktop
- providing online access to millions of cases, statutes and regulations. The company's
patent-pending research software helps busy legal professionals sort through the clutter, ranking
the best cases and statutes first, and enabling users to resort search results to find answers fast.
Whether used as a powerful research tool for sob practitioners and smaller firms or as a
supplemental resource for larger firms, Fastcase is an extremely valuable benefit for all LSBA
members. The LSBA library will include:
• All opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court from the founding of the Court;
• All reported opinions from the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals from 1950 to the
present;
• For all 50 states, all state supreme court and court of appeals opinions reported in any of the
West state reporters, from at least 1950 to the present;
• The United States Code (framed from the official U.S. Government source);
• The Code of Federal Regulations (generally framed from official sources); and
• The administrative regulations of most states (framed from official sources).

Members are sure to appreciate Fastcase's innovative features such as:
• Boolean and natural language searching
• Dual-column printing
• Multiple citation lookup and extraction
• Hyperlinked case citations
• Sort by search relevance
• Sort by document authority (most cited)
• Page numbers listed throughout cases
• Search by date range, jurisdiction and other fields
• Fast document navigation and term navigation
• Most relevant sections displayed in search results

Searching with Fastcase
In addition to Boolean and natural language searching, Fastcase allows users to search, sort,
using key fields such as decision date, jurisdiction, and citation. For researchers looking up
multiple documents simultaneously, Fastcase offers citation lookup and