Picture these scenerios:
Oh man! What was that case again? I know it was in Virginia and it had something to do with comic books and obscenity law. Grrrr…
You know what would rock? If I could make this commute billable.
OK … last-minute check before I tell oposing counsel what they can do with their offer…
Well there’s an app for that, and it’s called Fastcase. Currently only available on the iPhone, Fastcase is completely free to download and use, and it contains the largest legal database available on the iPhone.
Fastcase has proven to be very intuitive, containing such features as:
- A library of American cases and statutes, including Kansas and Missouri
- Boolean, natural language, and citation searching
- Browse or search statutes
- Customizable search results that you can sort five different ways:
- Relevance
- Decision date
- Short name
- Cited generally
- Cited within
- Search results automatically display number of citing cases as either “cited generally” or “cited within”
- Jump right to most relevant paragraph of any case or statute
- Integrated research history
- Save favorite documents for use later
Fastcase for iPhone is connected to the Fastcase Web-based platform, which is a legal research tool used as an alternative to the larger legal research providers and is available for free for members of certain bar associations, including Missouri. This means that the statutes and the caselaw are kept up to date.
So if you have an iPhone, download Fastcase and try it out for a spin. It is completely free!
W. Blake Wilson, Instructional & Research Services Librarian