Whether you're a sole practitioner using Fastcase as a primary research tool, a big-firm lawyer using it as a supplemental resource to control flat-rate price increases, or someone and somewhere in between, this service alone more than repays your ISBA dues investment.

An eight-page user's guide, available from the sign-up page on the Web and in the September issue of Illinois Bar Journal, helps you get started with Fastcase. Here's a brief overview of the service.

Fastcase is a Washington, D.C.-based online legal research provider. A growing number of state bars – Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Louisiana and Iowa, in addition to Illinois – offer it as a member benefit.

The Illinois plan gives you free, unlimited access to a federal and national library, and “framed” statutes and codes. (“Framing” is displaying the content of other sites – in this case, public-domain content on state government sites.)

Does it cost anything? No. It's an unlimited service. You're not on the clock, and it's free to ISBA members. To sign up, visit the ISBA Web site and follow the Fastcase link.

As an ISBA member you have a free subscription to the Fastcase national plan. It includes in rich array of Illinois material, including Illinois Supreme and Appellate Court cases back to 1950 (new cases are typically added within 48 hours).

It also features framed versions of the Illinois Com-piled Statutes, Illinois Administrative Code, Illinois court rules, and the Constitution from the Illinois General Assembly Web site.

But the library is not limited to Illinois. It contains all state supreme and appeals court opinions reported in any of the commercial state reporters, from at least 1950 to the present, along with framed versions of the state statutes and codes of all 50 states and the administrative regulations of most states.

The library also includes U.S. Supreme Court cases back to 1754 and federal circuit cases back to 1924 for most circuits, as well as framed versions of the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations.

Here's some of what Fastcase includes:

• Boolean and natural language searching

• Multiple citation lookup and extraction

• Sorting by search relevance

• Sorting by document authority (i.e., by “most cited” resource)

• Searching by date range, jurisdiction, and other fields

• Dual-column printing

• Hyperlinked case citations

• Page numbers listed throughout cases

The Fastcase interface is easy for “non-geeks” to use. It doesn't require special technical knowledge or ability. Because it's Web-based, it's available anywhere Internet access is available – in the office, at home, or on the road.

Please note that Fastcase customer service representatives cannot answer legal questions or provide legal advice.