Executive Director's Report

• Jurisdiction: Alabama,United States
• Citation: Vol. 75 No. 4 Pg. 0224
• Pages: 0224
• Publication year: 2014

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Vol. 75 No. 4 Pg. 224
The Alabama Lawyer
JULY, 2014

Keith B. Norman
keith.norman@alabar.org

Casemaker-A Member Benefit Worth Keeping?

Nine years ago, Alabama lawyers were introduced to an online legal research library called Casemaker. For the first time ever, this new member benefit provided all bar members with a no-cost legal research tool. Since then, the Casemaker consortium of state and metropolitan bars that have supported this service has grown to 25 associations and the research library materials have expanded tremendously. Today, Casemaker's content rivals any of the long established online legal research services.

This member benefit appears to be very popular among many Alabama lawyers. The information we have received from Casemaker indicates that Alabama lawyers use this service to a greater extent than their counterparts among the other consortium members. Based on overall Casemaker usage, the top five Alabama cities in 2013 were Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. Through May 15 of this year, the only change in the "lineup" is Hoover replacing Tuscaloosa in the fifth spot.

For those lawyers who may not have used Casemaker yet, the state libraries provide case law, statutes and legislative acts for all 50 jurisdictions and the District of Columbia. In many state libraries, Casemaker also offers a wealth of other searchable information, including administrative codes, jury instructions, workers' compensation decisions and law reviews. The federal...