For the members: new services and an improved Web site.

• Author: Johnson, Kelly Overstreet
• Position: Florida - President's Page

The Florida Bar provides many services and benefits for its members. Unfortunately, many of those services and benefits are underutilized. While touring the state, I am constantly surprised that many of our members are unaware of the services The Florida Bar provides. My favorites are our highly praised ethics hotline, which guides members in their contemplated ethical conduct, and our LOMAS program, which teaches members practice management skills. These are fabulous member services, and I would encourage you to take advantage of them.

Your Board of Governors and I have been working hard to develop some new services for our membership. I am excited to tell you about three of them I hope will be available in the next month or so.

First, free online legal research to all Bar members! The plan, which is being developed with FastCase, would provide Florida case law since 1950, U.S. 11th Circuit and Fifth Circuit courts of appeals decisions, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Florida statutes, the Florida Administrative Code, and the Florida Constitution, free of charge to all Florida Bar members.

Although intended as a basic service, Bar members will have the option of paying for additional services. FastCase was selected after negotiations with six companies that submitted bids, as it offered the best price for the basic services the Bar wanted to offer its members. In addition, FastCase is an existing, experienced company that has private clients, and is working to provide a similar service for two other state bar associations.

If all the details can be worked out, the Board of Governors could approve the final contract at its April 8 meeting. If that occurs, The Florida Bar will be offering free training during the June Annual Meeting. We expect new and young Bar members to benefit from the service as they work to set up their practices and begin their careers. We also hope that older lawyers, who may have been daunted by complex and expensive online research services, will be interested. The price will be right and the chance for free training will allow Bar members to sample cyber-research with the investment of only a little time.

The online research will be available from the Bar's Web site, www.flabar.org, which is itself undergoing an overhaul. Begun six years ago, the Web site has provided increasing amounts of information and has become one of the Bar's most valuable resources, both for members and the public. The Web site includes, by...