AmosMoses
Regular Member
imported post
It would be nice to have a legal research system in your pocket as an accessory for that big fat stainless SIG P220 on your hip, wouldn't it? Well, for iphone users, that's now a possibility...and it's TOTALLY FREE:
Fastcase is an pretty damned good for-pay legal research system similar to Westlaw, Lexis Nexis, Loislaw, etc. Maybe a bit more "streamlined", but relatively EXTREMELY powerful, nonetheless. You can go to their website, fastcasedotcom (I spelled it out instead of using the actual .com in case that isn't kosher here), and get a free 24 hour trial to check it out if you like. It's a bit more flexible than most of the paid research systems in that I believe that you can actually "subscribe" for 24 hour intervals, on up to paid monthly/yearly subs. This is what people like us would need...we don't make our living with the law, but we most surely access info regarding the law quite a large amount more than John Q. Public does. I used the free 24 hour trial...several times, in fact - it evidently doesn't log and compare your IP as a prerequisite to a one-time free trial, so you can get a free trial for as many email addresses as you care to utilize, and since I have a Spamex DEA account that has like 1000 disposable email addresses, well, let's just say that I like the way it's set up and leave it at that
...and, during those free trials, I found it to be very intuitively easy to use: you can access state and federal case law, statutes, and so on:
Fastcase Subscription Coverages range from the free 24 hour trial, to a $65/mo sub, or $95 / mo Premium sub, and have: Comprehensive 50-State & Federal Law; Federal and 50-State Appellate Case Law; Federal District Courts; Federal Bankruptcy Courts; Nationwide Statutes and Regulations; Fastcase Advanced Research Tools; Visualize Search Results with Timeline View; Authority Check, etc.
Well, now get this....now, there's a FREE iPhone app that gives you a FREE subscription to Fastcase on your iPhone! Granted, it's not the best system to use as a professional any more than you would want to use your iphone as a word processor, and I couldn't really imagine any lawyer using it for work, but it's surely sufficient for what any of us would need to use it for! You can get actual case law, AG Opinions, statutes, all manner of stuff (all 50 States and Federal)...right there on hand, in hand, when you may most need it.
I found it hard to believe at first that they are allowing totally free access, but I guess it's probably a wise choice for them. They have the info, and how much bandwidth can some iphones suck up, anyway? Lawyers would probably use it occasionally to check some certain things here and there, but they wouldn't use it for actual work (I believe that they can get the desktop/laptop system "free" through the Bar Ass'n as part of their paid membership). Other professionals who would use the service would also not hardly use it for their work, but could have it on hand for checking certain issues, etc. And, I guess there would be situations where some professionals who could use the system may try this free iphone app actually because it's free, and they may wind up really liking it and buying a sub for their desktop/laptop. In that sense, the iphone app could sort of serve the same service for Fastcase as their free 24 hour trial does, and it may well get them new paying customers...well worth it for them. So, I guess I can see why they offer this full iphone version free, because it is used kinda like their desktop 24 hour free trial is used...as a lure to hopefully get some full desktop service paying subscribers that they wouldn't otherwise have.
Personally, for what most of us who visit this site would need, this would be plenty enough. Like I said, we don't need to make our living with it or anything even remotely near that, but this service seems tailor made for open carriers - and, I gotta say it one more time ... it's FREE!
It would be nice to have a legal research system in your pocket as an accessory for that big fat stainless SIG P220 on your hip, wouldn't it? Well, for iphone users, that's now a possibility...and it's TOTALLY FREE:
Fastcase is an pretty damned good for-pay legal research system similar to Westlaw, Lexis Nexis, Loislaw, etc. Maybe a bit more "streamlined", but relatively EXTREMELY powerful, nonetheless. You can go to their website, fastcasedotcom (I spelled it out instead of using the actual .com in case that isn't kosher here), and get a free 24 hour trial to check it out if you like. It's a bit more flexible than most of the paid research systems in that I believe that you can actually "subscribe" for 24 hour intervals, on up to paid monthly/yearly subs. This is what people like us would need...we don't make our living with the law, but we most surely access info regarding the law quite a large amount more than John Q. Public does. I used the free 24 hour trial...several times, in fact - it evidently doesn't log and compare your IP as a prerequisite to a one-time free trial, so you can get a free trial for as many email addresses as you care to utilize, and since I have a Spamex DEA account that has like 1000 disposable email addresses, well, let's just say that I like the way it's set up and leave it at that
...and, during those free trials, I found it to be very intuitively easy to use: you can access state and federal case law, statutes, and so on:Fastcase Subscription Coverages range from the free 24 hour trial, to a $65/mo sub, or $95 / mo Premium sub, and have: Comprehensive 50-State & Federal Law; Federal and 50-State Appellate Case Law; Federal District Courts; Federal Bankruptcy Courts; Nationwide Statutes and Regulations; Fastcase Advanced Research Tools; Visualize Search Results with Timeline View; Authority Check, etc.
Well, now get this....now, there's a FREE iPhone app that gives you a FREE subscription to Fastcase on your iPhone! Granted, it's not the best system to use as a professional any more than you would want to use your iphone as a word processor, and I couldn't really imagine any lawyer using it for work, but it's surely sufficient for what any of us would need to use it for! You can get actual case law, AG Opinions, statutes, all manner of stuff (all 50 States and Federal)...right there on hand, in hand, when you may most need it.
I found it hard to believe at first that they are allowing totally free access, but I guess it's probably a wise choice for them. They have the info, and how much bandwidth can some iphones suck up, anyway? Lawyers would probably use it occasionally to check some certain things here and there, but they wouldn't use it for actual work (I believe that they can get the desktop/laptop system "free" through the Bar Ass'n as part of their paid membership). Other professionals who would use the service would also not hardly use it for their work, but could have it on hand for checking certain issues, etc. And, I guess there would be situations where some professionals who could use the system may try this free iphone app actually because it's free, and they may wind up really liking it and buying a sub for their desktop/laptop. In that sense, the iphone app could sort of serve the same service for Fastcase as their free 24 hour trial does, and it may well get them new paying customers...well worth it for them. So, I guess I can see why they offer this full iphone version free, because it is used kinda like their desktop 24 hour free trial is used...as a lure to hopefully get some full desktop service paying subscribers that they wouldn't otherwise have.
Personally, for what most of us who visit this site would need, this would be plenty enough. Like I said, we don't need to make our living with it or anything even remotely near that, but this service seems tailor made for open carriers - and, I gotta say it one more time ... it's FREE!