The Goodson Blogson

Last month marked a milestone for the Caselaw Access Project (CAP) , an ambitious project from the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab to digitize centuries of U.S. federal and state case law for free public access. Launched in 2016 with the financial backing of online legal research company Ravel Law (now owned by LexisNexis ), the Caselaw Access Project involved the digitization of more than 36 million pages of printed case reporters. The original agreement contained a commercial use restriction for eight years, which has now expired. The Innovation Lab commemorated the occasion with a conference on March 8 , highlighting the history of the project and use cases for the future. For more information on the history of the project, see Adam Ziegler's guest post at Bob Ambrogi's Law Sites . The Search feature on the legacy version of the CAP website links to CourtListener's Advanced Case Law Search , which has incorporated the CAP content. The beta version of the  CAP websit...

The Goodson Law Library has just subscribed to MuniPro MuniCode Library , a database with nearly 4,000 municipal codes. While many municipal and local ordinances are freely readable and searchable online (such as Durham, NC ), MuniPro allows researchers to search across multiple codes and jurisdictions, as well as create saved searches and alerts for topics of interest. For more details, visit the vendor help page .    Municode is available to current members of the Duke University community and is linked from the Legal Databases & Links and campus libraries Databases A-Z list . If using off-campus, connect via the Library Resources Only group of the Duke VPN . At the Municode home page, select "Sign in" in the header area and then click "Log in with site-wide subscription." Additional resources for researching municipal codes include: Fastcase (University) includes city codes for Durham, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem in its North Carolina Statut...

Last week, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado sanctioned two attorneys for their filing in an election dispute lawsuit, citing "a woeful lack of investigation into the law" and "patently frivolous arguments." The judge's order directed the attorneys to pay opposing counsels' fees for filing motions in the suit. Other attorneys who filed challenges to the 2020 election results have experienced similar professional consequences: Rudolph Giuliani currently faces a D.C. bar ethics investigation , following the June suspension of his law license in New York, and earlier this summer former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood weathered a high-profile hearing over potential sanctions in Michigan. These cases have been a very public reminder of the importance of attorneys keeping up to date with their ethical duties and obligations. Every day, lawyers across the country face sanctions or other disciplinary action for failures to uphold the rules of thei...

Members of the state bars or bar associations in all fifty states enjoy free access to at least one online legal research service as a benefit of membership. Generally, these membership benefits provide access to either Fastcase or Casemaker ; a few states offer access to both. These services each include state and federal case law, statutes, and regulations; each also offer some unique content courtesy of partnerships (law reviews through Fastcase's partnership with HeinOnline; foreign and international content on Casemaker via vLex). Both services have been in the bar benefit market for many years, and occasionally jurisdictions will switch platforms. Today marks the first day of Fastcase's partnership with the Alabama State Bar , announced back in May. Members had previously received access to Casemaker. The Goodson Law Library has tracked these changes to the landscape on our page Legal Research Via State Bar Associations . Current partnership lists for each research se...

Effective September 1, members of the Utah State Bar now receive the legal research service Fastcase as a benefit of membership ( press release ). Previously, Utah attorneys received free access to Casemaker . Bar associations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia provide members with access to at least one of these two low-cost legal research alternatives, making them a cost-effective first stop in legal research by practicing attorneys. To track the changes in bar association research offerings over time, the Goodson Law Library has maintained a map of Legal Research via State Bar Associations . The map covers only state-level offerings; local and county bar associations may similarly offer members access to one of these services. Both Fastcase and Casemaker contain U.S. primary legal materials: federal and state case law, statutory and regulatory codes, court rules, and constitutions. Additional features vary within each service. Fastcase offers a number of secondary ...

Earlier this month, the Washington State Bar Association became the second state bar organization in the U.S. to offer its members free access to both Fastcase and Casemaker , two low-cost research services that are frequently offered as a membership benefit by bar associations. Since 2013, the Goodson Law Library has maintained a map of state bar association legal research benefits , which has been updated to reflect this recent change. The landscape has changed dramatically since the first such map was created by 3 Geeks and a Law Blog in 2010 (sadly, their IBM ManyEyes map no longer displays). In those days, New York State Bar Association members had access to a legal research service called Loislaw (acquired by Fastcase in 2015), Pennsylvania used a customized Lexis product called InCite (PA switched to Casemaker in 2014), and several state bar associations offered no legal research service benefit at all. Over the years, Fastcase and Casemaker gained shares of a market that...

Last week, Fastcase announced a new partnership with the California Lawyers Association . Beginning in 2019, CLA members will receive access to Fastcase as a benefit of bar association membership. This move means that bar associations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia now provide their members with access to at least one of the low-cost research services Fastcase and Casemaker. This fills in the State Bar Association Research Benefits map that the Goodson Blogson has been tracking for several years, updating a map originally developed by 3 Geeks and a Law Blog in March 2010 . Currently, 30 jurisdictions on the state-level list provide their members with free access to exclusively Fastcase; 20 states provide access to exclusively Casemaker. 1 state (Texas) provides its members with access to both services. In addition, a number of county and local bar associations have struck their own deals with the research services. Both Fastcase and Casemaker contain U.S. federal ...

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit made headlines for using emoji in a published opinion. While they are not the first U.S. court to discuss or reference emoji, many commentators assert that Emerson v. Dart is the first time that emoji images have been embedded in the text of the opinion itself rather than described verbally. It also marks the judicial debut of the "poop emoji," a cartoonish depiction of a pile of excrement. Emerson v. Dart involved a Title VII retaliation claim brought by a female corrections officer. During the course of the litigation, the plaintiff was sanctioned for making a threatening Facebook post to a group of fellow correctional employees: To my fellow officers! DON’T GET IN A FIGHT THAT IS NOT, I REPEAT THAT IS NOT YOURS. I’VE JUST RECEIVED THE NAMES OF SOME PEOPLE THAT THE COUNTY IS ATTEMPTING TO USE AS WITNESSES, (1) IS A SGT, (2) OFFICERS, (1) OPR INVESTIGATOR, on the job 18mths, this fight is from 2009 & I’...

Why do lawyers join the American Bar Association and state or local voluntary bar associations? These organizations provide attorneys with a professional networking community, access to continuing legal education (CLE), and discounts on products and services. In 49 states and the District of Columbia , bar association membership also comes with the benefit of free access to an online legal research service: either Fastcase or Casemaker . (California is the only state bar association that does not provide statewide legal research access, but many local bar associations in California offer members a similar benefit.) Law firms with access to premium research services like Westlaw and Lexis may require their attorneys to consult these low-cost alternatives first; for other attorneys, the state bar research benefit may be their primary source for online legal research. Both of these legal research services provide attorneys with access to case law, statutes, and regulations. Fastcas...

It's about that time of year when May graduates lose their extended access to Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law . Both services allow recent Law School graduates to continue using their academic passwords for 6 months. ( Westlaw 's post-graduation access lasts a little longer; see Library Services for Recent Grads/Alumni for an overview.) No need to despair, though – several legal research options are available for no cost or low-cost. First, check with your state or local bar association, which may offer free access to the low-cost legal research services Fastcase or Casemaker . Currently, the bar associations in 49 states and the District of Columbia include at least one of these research services as a membership benefit (California, the only holdout, contains many county and local bar associations which provide members with access to one or the other). The Goodson Law Library's map of Legal Research via State Bar Associations has been updated to reflect the latest ch...

"Get it in writing" is important advice for even relatively straightforward legal matters – disputing a credit card transaction, lending money to a friend, unloading an old car in a private sale. But most people would like guidance on how even simple legal documents might be expected to look. Form books provide a starting point for many researchers, offering templates and tips for creating demand letters and agreements for common legal issues. The Goodson Law Library's research guide to Legal Forms was recently updated, and includes resources for non-lawyers, as well as form sets used by legal professionals. For non-lawyers, Nolo's 101 Law Forms for Personal Use (Reference KF170 .L46 10th ed. 2016) contains general templates for everyday legal situations, such as creating simple wills, selling personal property, or drafting agreements with various service providers. The forms are not specific to any particular state’s laws, and the introductory text to the forms ...

The vast majority of state bar associations offer their members free access to one of the major low-cost legal research services, Casemaker and Fastcase . The advantages are obvious for solo practitioners and small-firm attorneys, who rely on these research services for access to primary law and selected secondary materials. But even Biglaw practitioners can benefit from access to these alternatives to premium services like Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg: they provide uncluttered case law and statute searching, and include unique features like Fastcase's interactive search results timeline ( covered in the ABA Journal last year), local legal materials such as county and city codes, and secondary sources like CasemakerLibra's Continuing Legal Education collection or Fastcase's treatise library (added after its recent acquisition of the now-defunct service Loislaw). There have been some changes to the state bar associations' legal research offerings since the Goodson B...

The American Bar Association just announced that law students are now eligible for free membership to the ABA . Membership in the Law Student Division provides students with access to ABA publications, member discounts, and continuing legal education (CLE) materials. Students must be currently enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school. To join, visit www.americanbar.org/abalawstudents or call the ABA Service Center at 800-285-2221. In addition, Duke Law students might be interested in joining the North Carolina Bar Association , which also provides free registration for currently-enrolled law students. The NCBA membership provides students with free individual accounts to the Fastcase research service (currently also available in a shared IP format through the Goodson Law Library) as well as bar publications and additional membership discounts. To join the NCBA, visit http://www.ncbar.org/members/divisions/law-students . Planning your legal career in a different state? Visit the ...

The Goodson Law Library now subscribes to the legal research service Fastcase . Members of the Duke Law community may access Fastcase with a current Law School NetID through this link , which is posted on the Legal Databases & Links list as well as in the Duke Libraries Catalog . You may be thinking, "Not another legal research service to learn!" It’s true that the interface will look somewhat familiar to users of Westlaw , Lexis and Bloomberg , and the primary law content can be found elsewhere. But it's still worth taking a look at Fastcase, especially if you plan to practice in one of the 27 states (or a handful of cities and counties) whose bar associations currently offer the service for free as a membership benefit, a list which includes New York and North Carolina. In jurisdictions with free access to the service for bar association members, Fastcase can be a highly cost-effective starting place for your legal research. Like other legal research servic...

The Goodson Law Library's research guide to North Carolina Practice has just been updated. This guide outlines primary and secondary legal research resources for the state of North Carolina, in both print and electronic formats. So what's changed in the latest version of this guide, besides updates to links and book editions? A new section with guidance on researching North Carolina legislative history , including links to General Assembly study reports and digitized versions of House and Senate journals. Updates to the list of A-Z Subject Treatises to include North Carolina Continuing Legal Education (CLE) publications, which are now available to the Duke Law School community via Bloomberg Law 's secondary sources menu. Improved instructions for accessing online versions of other treatises on LexisNexis and WestlawNext , as well as N.C. pattern jury instructions through Fastcase (which is provided free to members of the N.C. Bar Association, and is the only elect...

Last October, Goodson Law Library Head of Reference Services Jennifer L. Behrens compiled an online map detailing which low-cost legal research services were provided for free to members of various state bar associations . This was an update of a 2010 map created by Greg Lambert of 3 Geeks and a Law Blog . Since the October 2013 map was compiled, several state bars have either changed or announced upcoming changes to their free legal research services to members. The Goodson Law Library map has now been updated for June 2014 to reflect those changes, and can be found at TargetMap.com or downloaded below. Although the overall market share of leading services Fastcase and Casemaker remains steady, several states have made changes to their designated free research service. Most notably, the State Bar of Texas will offer both Fastcase and Casemaker to its members, after previously providing only Casemaker . Several states will also switch their longstanding services later ...

Today, the makers of the legal research service FastCase unveiled the Bad Law Bot , an enhancement to its Authority Check citator feature which uses algorithms to highlight subsequent negative history. Although such editorial characterization is familiar to users of the premium legal research services LexisNexis ( Shepard ' s Citations ) and Westlaw (KeyCite), this represents a major step forward for the lower-cost legal research alternative. Authority Check previously provided only a list of linked opinions which cited the original case, and always recommended that users supplement their Authority Check findings with the additional horsepower of Shepard's and KeyCite. FastCase does still caution that the Bad Law Bot flags are no substitute for the careful analysis of a human attorney – while the presence of a negative Bad Law Bot flag likely indicates some negative subsequent history, the absence of a negative Bad Law Bot flag shouldn't necessarily be interpreted to...