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Legal Research Options

Advance Your Practice With FastCase’s FREE Advance Sheets

June 20, 2012 by Carolyn Elefant

With a torrent of information streaming through our email, social media channels and RSS feeds daily, most of us have become regimented in filtering.  We eyeball headlines, prioritize links from designated Twitter followers, strain articles without a particular tag or search term and use the delete key without mercy.  While our compulsive filtering immunizes us [...]

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Tip Round Up: Keeping Receipts, Cheap Legal Research and More

September 22, 2010 by Carolyn Elefant

I’ve been so preoccupied with big picture issues that I’ve neglected the other aspets of this blog that make it useful: the practical tips.  I’ve been compiling a bunch over the past few weeks, so here they are: Ernie the Attorney offers two great tips, one one using FedEx’s print online service in lieu of [...]

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Free Legal Research by Google & What It Means

November 17, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

What do I think about Google’s recent launch of a free, online legal research tool as part of Google Scholar?  (disclosure: my husband works for Google, but isn’t involved with the legal research project) Funny you should ask, because I’ve been tracking, evaluating and most of all, patiently awaiting the arrival of a functional, robust [...]

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Ride Shotgun With MyShingle and RECAP

August 17, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Since I was out at the end of last week, I missed the announcement of RECAP, a nifty little Firefox plug-in that rides shotgun with lawyers as they use PACER, automatically uploading a copy of documents selected for download to a free repository where other lawyers and the public can view them for free.  In addition, [...]

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Legal Research for Solos: A Round-Up

July 14, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Back in the dark ages when I started my firm, the only legal research options available were the library and a $600/month LEXIS subscription service, which actually had a cap on number of searches.  Fast forward fifteen years and Lexis costs have declined considerably, though not as much as one might expect in light of [...]

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The Bars, Reviewed: What Has Your Bar Association Done for You Lately?

February 19, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Summary Update (7 pm, 2/19/09) More comments below, with links to additional NC Bar resources and Canada resources too.  In response to Eric’s question, the review took place strictly based on websites alone  – I personally visited about 30 of them, and delegated the remaining review, then did additional link checks.  Talking to bar personnel [...]

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More on the Joys of Law Libraries

April 25, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Like Barry Kaufman, I’m a huge fan of the law library and recognize that it’s an indispensable tool for solo practitioners.  Which is why I’m thrilled to be able to offer this Guest Post, Eight Reasons Solo Lawyers Should Use Law Libraries from Mary Whisner, the assistant librarian for reference services at the Gallagher Law [...]

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New Mexico Joins Casemaker

January 22, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Casemaker, a free legal research service included in participating state bar membership fees is a trend we’ve been following for a long time.  As this article fom bizjournals.com (1/20/06) reports, New Mexico is the 23d state to join the Casemaker consortium. New Mexico Bar joins legal research consortium, hich according to the article, now serves [...]

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Cincinnati Law Library Adds New Benefits

August 31, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

This article, Law Library Offers Virtual Services (Cincinnati Business Journal 8/29/05) reports on some of the new, free computerized research services offered by the Cincinnati Law Library Association.  The services include computerized legal research by Fastcase.com and a journal service, HeinOnline.  (as an aside, I’ve used Hein Online at the American University Pence Law Library [...]

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Don’t Overlook the Lowly Law School Library

August 21, 2005 by Carolyn Elefant

With so many legal research tools available on line, most lawyers neglect the lowly law school library as a resource.  But in my view, there’s nothing as valuable for research as a good law library.  In the jurisdiction where I practice, American University Washington College of Law Pence Law Library tops my list as an [...]

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