Latest & Greatest – Fastcase: The Definitive Guide

By Brian Huddleston

Published by American Bar Association Law Practice Division

KF 242 .A1 H833 2018

In 2017, Fastcase released Fastcase 7, a new version that promised greater ease of use with its new features and tools, including an overhauled interface. For those of you who may not know, Fastcase is an electronic legal research service providing users with access to cases, statutes, and regulations and secondary sources like treatises and law reviews. If you are new to Fastcase or just want to search more efficiently, Brian Huddleston’s book, Fastcase: The Definitive Guide, is the book for you. From the basics of searching to downloading and printing documents, Huddleston demonstrates how to get the most out of Fastcase and your time. With this book, you will learn how to:

  • Search for cases using official reporter citations or natural language or keyword searching;
  • Search across different jurisdictions;
  • Narrow search results with filters or through the Tag Cloud;
  • Perform authority checks using the Bad Law Bot;
  • Print, email, or save documents or copy and paste text; and
  • Perform legal research using the Fastcase mobile app

Fasctcase isn’t simply limited to finding relevant case law. As the author explains, users can search statutes, consult Statute Annotations Reports, and look at historic statutes and session laws. They can search regulations and administrative law resources for most states and the federal government. Based upon their subscription, users can also access secondary resources, such as treatises, law reviews, bar journals, practice guides, and forms. No matter what the search, the author provides ample illustrations throughout the book demonstrating how users can find the desired information.

Fastcase: The Definitive Guide is just as its title implies. It provides all of the information you need to know to use Fastcase 7 like an expert. You can find this book at the reference desk in our new Legal Tech Collection.

Did you know that as a member of the State Bar of Texas, attorneys have free (yes, free) access to Fastcase? If you are a member of the State Bar of Texas, you already should be taking advantage of this membership perk.

If you would like additional training using Fastcase, Harris County Law Library can help. Come to our Free Legal Tech for Legal Professionals course offered by our Legal Tech Institute.

Fastcase 50 Honorees

Earlier this month, the legal research platform, Fastcase, announced its annual class of innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders. Known as the Fastcase 50, the honorees are a distinguished group of lawyers, legal technologists, policymakers, judges, law librarians, and bar association executives. They are people from all walks of life whose accomplishments in the field of law inspire others to advance the profession.

In recent years, Texas has been well represented among those selected, and 2017 is no exception. Cameron Vann, Senior Staff Attorney of the State Bar of Texas Lawyers' Assistance Program is a recent inductee as is Cisselon Nichols Hurd, Senior Counsel at Shell Oil and Co-Founder of the UT Center for Women in Law

Also included among the honorees since 2011 are several librarians. Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress, is on this year's roster. Previous librarian inductees are listed here.

2016: Tim Baran, Cathryn Bowie, Robert (Bob) Oaks

2015: David Mao, Kate Martin

2014: Tina Gheen, Courtney Kennaday, Richard Leiter

2013: Bob Berring, Jr., Cindy Chick, Anne Ellis, Bess Reynolds

2012: Tom Boone, Jason Eiseman, Jane Kinney , Roger Skalbeck

2011: Robert Brink, Tom Bruce, Sarah Glassmeyer, Joe Hodnicki, John Joergensen, John Palfrey, Rob Richards, Roberta Shaffer, David Whelan, Judith Wright