Fastcase is an online legal research service with powerful search and data visualization tools. It boasts a comprehensive primary law database and integrates with other legal databases to provide a robust legal library for your research needs.
Fun fact: the very first post on Lawyerist in 2007 was about Fastcase!
Fastcase Highlights
Already free. Many local bar associations have subscription plans that allow their members to use Fastcase for free. Check the website or with your bar association to see if you can take advantage!
Docket Alarm. This past year, Fastcase acquired Docket Alarm, another online research and analytics tool used to identify judicial trends and predict case outcomes. Through this acquisition, Fastcase now includes docket tracking and analytics, as well as pleadings, briefs, and motions for all federal courts and 14 state courts.
AI Sandbox. Do you have data or documents to analyze and explore and a need to share those insights? The AI Sandbox lets you use artificial intelligence in a secure environment to conduct that sort of work, then compare it with public legal data or Fastcase’s data. You can then have IBM’s Watson Analytics and Watson Developer Cloud analyze your findings to get more profound insights into your contracts, briefs, or other documents.
Fastcase Pricing
If you don’t have free access to Fastcase through your bar association, you can choose from three different pricing tiers.
The Appellate level features no-contract monthly pricing and access to the primary law library, excluding federal district courts and federal bankruptcy courts. This plan is $65/user/month (if billed monthly) or $695/user/year (if billed annually).
The Premium level also offers a no-contract monthly pricing model and includes everything the Appellate level provides plus federal district courts and federal bankruptcy court decisions. This plan is $95/user/month (if billed monthly) or $995/user/year (if billed annually).
The Enterprise level is custom and best suited for big law firms, bar associations, corporations, and law schools. You will need to contact Fastcase for more information on this pricing tier.
If you’re still not sure about this service, take a test-drive with a free 24-hour trial (with unlimited printing).
Fastcase Features
| Fastcase | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Website | fastcase.com | ||
| Plans | Appellate | Premium | Enterprise |
| Starting Price | $695/user annually; $65/user monthly | $995/user annually; $95/user monthly | Varies |
| Apps | Android and iOS | ||
| Free Trial | 24-Hour Free Trial | 24-Hour Free Trial | 24-Hour Free Trial |
| Cases | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| State Statutes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secondary Sources | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dockets | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Citation Checking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Natural Language Searching | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Boolean Searching | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Filter Searching | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Research History | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Folders | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Additional Results | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Alerts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Case Summaries | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Formatted Downloads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| News Coverage | |||
| Search without an Account | |||
| Send to Cloud Storage |
Things You Might Want to Know
Secondary sources. The Fastcase library includes primary law (case law and statutes), legal blogs, law review articles, briefs, pleadings, expert witness databases, analytics, and secondary treatises. It includes 129 treatises from Aspen and CCH and over 100 titles from James Publishing, as well as 79 labor and employment treatises from Littler. Though Fastcase’s new imprint, Full Court Press, it has about 30 titles in production. Fastcase also provides access to law review articles through its partnership with HeinOnline.
Additional subscription fees. If you don’t already have a subscription to HeinOnline, you will need to purchase one to read the law review articles your search surfaced. You also need to pay for access to some other integrated databases. Because of these additional subscription fees, your costs for legal research with this service will be higher than the published prices if you need access to law journals.
Mobile apps. If you want to research on the go or need to check something quick, Fastcase offers free iOS, Android, and Windows phone apps for your on-the-go research.
Who Fastcase is For
Fastcase is an excellent option if you already have access through your bar association. Their pricing is reasonable, especially in lights of other research options out there. However, if you need access to additional databases, like HeinOnline, your legal research costs could creep up faster than intended.
See all the key features of all the online legal research tools options in our features chart.
