Lexis has just announced that law students will have unlimited access to Lexis Advance this summer. That means you can use Lexis Advance for any type of legal work you will be doing this summer. Previously Lexis has always had restrictions on summer access (as Westlaw to this point still does) on using their product [...]
One of the ways attorneys have historically (and some currently) kept up with the legal developments in their jurisdiction is to read cases in “advance sheets.” Advance sheets are paperback versions of court cases that are published and sent to attorneys and libraries before the cases are printed in the hardbound volumes. Since electronic legal [...]
In a recent opinion the Utah State Bar’s Ethics Advisory Committee was faced with the issue of whether it was a violation of the ethics rules “for an attorney to ask a law student to undertake research using the law student’s free account and in breach of the student’s contract with Lexis and/or Westlaw.” The [...]
My last post laid out Westlaw and Lexis policies for summer access for law students. There may be times during the summer where you won’t qualify for student access and you may be looking for some free sources to use before jumping onto a firm’s expensive Westlaw/Lexis account. There are a number of free/low-cost alternatives available to you and it would be [...]
The Law Library has recently acquired access to Fastcase, a low-cost alternative to Westlaw and LexisNexis. As attorneys look to cut costs, legal research systems like Fastcase are becoming more popular. Currently 18 state bar associations (including nearby Nevada and Arizona) offer Fastcase as a member benefit, meaning it’s possible our students will have access [...]
In law school we focus a lot on Westlaw and LexisNexis, and with good reason. They are the leading legal research systems available. However, they also cost a lot of money– something law students can’t always grasp while in law school when the library is paying for access and you don’t have clients to bill. [...]
There are smartphone apps for just about anything these days and the law is no exception. I’ve blogged before about Fastcase’s free legal research app, which I highly suggest you take a look at if you haven’t already. Vicki Steiner at the UCLA Law Library has put together a guide to Mobile Applications for Law [...]
As lawyers attempt to cut costs in today’s economy, free and low-cost legal research systems are becoming more and more popular. Many state bar associations have contracted with low-cost legal research vendors to provide a legal research system as a bar membership benefit. If you know where you’ll be working this summer, it would be [...]
Earlier this week Robert Ambrogi previewed the new Fastcase iPhone App. Now available for free from the App Store, the Fastcase App is the largest free law library on the iPhone. For those of you unfamiliar with Fastcase, it is a low-cost legal research system that is available to members of several Bar Associations across [...]
I’ve blogged before about alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw for legal research. Two alternatives, Casemaker and Fastcase, are provided as member benefits through many state and local bar associations. The Utah Bar Association currently provides access to Casemaker. Other nearby state bar associations, Arizona’s for example, provide Fastcase. Robert Ambrogi’s recent article Casemaker v. Fastcase [...]