by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
In providing free legal research on the Internet, the Florida Bar hopes it’s given incentive to old school attorneys to finally become laptop lawyers.
The Bar has purchased the Fast Case legal research service and is now providing a free Florida case-law search on the Bar website, www.flabar.com. The service not only provides access for all 76,000 Bar members to Florida case law, it should give attorneys who don’t use the Internet a reason to cross the digital divide, said E.P. “Ike” Iaconis, an attorney who serves on the Bar’s Member Benefits Committee.
“There are some attorneys out there still using manual typewriters,” said Iaconis. “This has been one of the long-range goals of the Bar. We’ve discussed the fact that we want all Florida attorneys on the Internet. It allows them to provide a more professional service.”
The Bar is prodding its members to embrace technology, because it will likely become a requisite for practicing law in Florida. Courts across the state are taking the preliminary steps toward the day when practicing law becomes paperless.
Duval County Clerk of Courts Jim Fuller has set out long-range plans to replace his warehouse full of files with computer disks. Fuller envisions Duval County attorneys one day downloading necessary files from an online database and walking into courtrooms with laptops instead of briefcases.
In South Florida, the Fourth District Court of Appeals began a pilot project July 1 that required attorneys to provide filings to the courts in e-mail as well as hard copy, said Iaconis. Attorneys without some degree of technological savvy would find themselves at a professional disadvantage in that kind of environment, he said.
Aside from helping set the Bar on a progressive course, the Fast Case service will liberalize access to Florida’s case law, said Iaconis. Similar search engines could cost hundreds of dollars monthly if purchased privately. That can put the services out of reach for young attorneys, solo practitioners or small firms trying to stretch a budget.
And while single case files can be downloaded from some services for as little as $5, the charges can add up when compiling case law from 20 or 30 cases.
“The charges can become prohibitive on an a la carte basis,” said Iaconis. “This is one of the greatest member benefits that I’ve seen made available. I wish it was available when I was a young attorney.”
The free Fast Case library isn’t as extensive as some for-profit services or the Court Reporter series’ available in legal libraries. Fast Case files are available going back to 1950, while the reporter series goes back about a century further.
But searching for appropriate case law through Fast Case will be a much quicker endeavor than searching manually through the reporter series, said Iaconis. And limiting the Fast Case library to post-1950 case law allowed the Bar to provide the service free to members.
“If we wanted to go all the way back to the beginning of time it would have been very expensive,” said Iaconis. “When we asked for bids, we were looking specifically for the capability to offer free research.”
Bar members in good standing can access Fast Case through the Bar’s website. Opinions from the Florida Supreme Court and District Courts of Appeal are available as well as the Florida Constitution, state statutes and the Florida Administrative Code.