Fastcase
Tips
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Access to justice is a real and growing problem in the United States. In the past, it has been difficult to share the text of the law with clients and the public, so called firewalls have prevented selecting cases or statutes and sharing them directly with those who don’t have access to Fastcase, LexisNexis, or Westlaw. Attorneys have had to jump through hoops to accomplish this for a while: typically by printing out the cases and sending them to clients. That’s an imperfect workaround to a problem that needs a solution.
It’s imperfect because it takes time (and thus, money) to print or save documents and send them to clients. And what about prospective clients? There are any number of reasons an attorney would want to link to caselaw, statutes, or rules on their firm webpages or personal blogs. Previously, there’s never been a well-developed tool to do that. That all changed with the relatively quiet introduction of a new Fastcase feature, available to all active NACBA members.
On the top right of every case, statute, rule, regulation (in short: any non-copyrighted document) in Fastcase, you’ll now see a blue hyperlink labeled, “Public link.” Clicking on this Public link will open a new webpage that is visible to everyone, whether or not they have access to the Fastcase service. Practice before a particular court and need to make potential new clients aware of some important rules of the court? Work for a bankruptcy firm and want to point out some important sections of Chapter 11?
Want to share a link to some cases you’ve won? You can do all of that now with the Public link feature.
NACBA offers members unprecedented access to bankruptcy research, and now Fastcase is able to offer unprecedented access to your clients as well. We’re looking forward to seeing the creative ways attorneys will use this tool.
Copy Citation Function
Don’t let the tedious process of copying down case citations sidetrack your research project. Instead, use the Copy Citation function in Fastcase to automatically copy and paste the citation of the case you are quoting into the document you are working on.
Step 1:
Access the case that you want to cite. Make sure that you are in the full case text view and not on the results screen.
Step 2: Select Copy Citation from the Document menu.
Step 3: Open the document (or e-mail) that
you want to paste the citation into. Put your cursor in the appropriate spot in the document and press Ctrl + V.
Case citation will be pasted into the document.
Fastcase Support
Did you know via Twitter @Fastcase live-chat assistance is free to active members of NACBA? Take advantage of a research associate today!
To Access live chat, just select Live Help from the Help menu at the top of the screen. A Live Chat window will open on your screen. Here you can
type in your question and wait for a Fastcase customer support associate to respond and assist you with your issue.
Fastcase Upgrade for NACBA Members
NACBA members get free access to Fastcase BK Law but are also given the choice to upgrade for $195/yr (assuming active NACBA membership).
Access To Justice