EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S PAGE MAY 2022
Expanded Legal Research—Free and at Your Fingertips
State Bar of Texas member benefits are second to none. And they keep getting better.
Since 2014, the State Bar has offered members unlimited free access to
Fastcase’s nationwide legal research. I’m excited to announce we’ve
expanded the benefit to include free access to millions of briefs,
pleadings, motions, and orders through Docket Alarm within the Fastcase
platform.
All active State Bar of Texas members can access the additional
resources now by logging into My Bar Page at texasbar.com with their existing
username and password. A how-to video and guide are available at texasbar.com/legalresearch.
The expanded Docket Alarm briefs, pleadings, motions, and orders
partnership is the first between Fastcase and a bar association, and it
will become a model for other bars.
As noted in my September 2021 column, for many years the State Bar of
Texas provided free legal research to members through both Fastcase and
Casemaker. Last year, the companies merged to offer a more comprehensive
set of tools and products under the Fastcase platform. Casemaker as a
stand-alone platform ended last fall. (If you still need help
transitioning from Casemaker to Fastcase, visit the Fastcase Resource
Library (https://bit.ly/fastcase-resource-library).
Fastcase has been a tremendous partner for the State Bar of Texas.
Co-founder and President Phil Rosenthal said he believes bar members
should get more and more for free as the company grows. As he put it,
helping bar associations is in Fastcase’s DNA.
The Docket Alarm collection has more than 63 million case filings across
state and federal trial courts, and thousands of new documents are added
every day. The collection includes
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sample motions,
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as-filed briefs,
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new complaints in federal and state cases filed in counties across the U.S., and
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nonfinal orders from judges on procedural motions.
The State Bar of Texas has negotiated special offers and discounts on a variety of resources to help members with the everyday practice of law. It’s one of the many ways we work to improve the quality of legal services in our state. I invite you to explore the growing list of member benefits at texasbar.com/benefits.
Sincerely,
TREY APFFEL
Executive Director,
State Bar of Texas
Editor-in-Chief,
Texas Bar Journal
Trey Apffel can be reached at 512-427-1500, trey.apffel@texasbar.com or
@ApffelT on
Twitter.
