Member Benefits

• Jurisdiction: Georgia,United States
• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 5 Pg. 0054
• Pages: 0054
• Publication year: 2021

Member Benefits No. Vol. 26, No. 5, Pg. 54 Georgia Bar Journal April, 2021

Fastcase and Casemaker: The Peanut Butter & Jelly of Legal Research

Fastcase and Casemaker have joined forces and will work together to provide a superior research experience.

BY SHEILA BALDWIN

The State Bar of Georgia first offered legal research as a member benefit in January 2005. This relationship was initiated due to our members' desire to have access to quality legal research at an affordable price. Electronic legal research was developed in the late 70s, with LexisNexis and Westlaw dominating the market with their expensive and somewhat complex online services and CDs. Eventually, other internet-based search engines entered the legal technology market with software that helped attorneys keep up with case law, statutes and research resources. Legal professionals were forced to move beyond their firm libraries to the cloud to keep current and access expanding content. Two such providers that came on the scene were Casemaker and Fastcase, with Casemaker being the first to exclusively market to bar associations, giving them the edge to become our members' most popular and valuable member benefit 15 years ago.

Five years later, Fastcase was moving into the bar association market and offered the State Bar of Georgia an opportunity to vet their service. Due to its speed and ease of use, the Board of Governors voted to change providers, and Fastcase was introduced to State Bar of Georgia members in January 2011. Since that time, State Bar members' use of their Fastcase Legal Research benefit has increased to the point that Georgia is the most active state bar partner. At the same time, Casemaker has continued to represent the bar community while adding additional content and features that Fastcase doesn't have.

As the State Bar's member benefits coordinator, I can confirm that there are loyal Casemaker devotees who will be especially happy to learn that these two companies have joined forces and will work together to provide a superior research experience. Like peanut butter and jelly, one will be better with the other. At no extra cost, our members will now have the ability to take advantage of the best of both of these legal research platforms as part of their member benefit.

At no extra cost, our members will now have the ability to take advantage of the best of both of these legal research platforms as part of their member benefit.

At a...