Virginia Lawyers Weekly

More than 90 percent of respondents to a Virginia State Bar survey about the Fastcase online research service say the VSB should continue to provide access to the service as a member benefit.

Almost three-fourths of the respondents found the service to be “usually reliable” and another 22.5 percent found it to be “usually somewhat reliable.” More than 90 percent of respondents found it to be at least “somewhat comprehensive and complete.”

The online survey was sent to about 10,000 Fastcase users, and non-users were given a chance to weigh in by responding to a link on the VSB’s member sign-in page. Just over 1,000 attorneys responded.

A special VSB task force monitoring Fastcase sent the survey. This group will recommend whether the VSB should continue to provide the service, which costs the bar about $100,000 a year. All active and retired members of the VSB can access the service.

Half the respondents were solo practitioners and another 30.8 percent were in private firms of two to 10 lawyers.

But the survey showed that relatively few of the respondents use the service consistently. Only 4 percent said they use it daily, and 32.2 percent said use it less than daily but at least weekly. About a third used it less than weekly but at least monthly, while 28 percent used it less than once a month.

More than 80 percent of the respondents considered themselves self-taught about the service, but fewer than 12 percent reported any difficulty in using it.

Gail Warren, the state law librarian and a member of the VSB task force evaluating Fastcase, said the survey suggests that for many solo and small firm practitioners, “It’s either this or nothing. They use it and find it helpful.”

She noted that a research source for such attorneys was a major reason for the insistence of Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. that the VSB provide it.

The survey asked the respondents to submit a comment, and more than a quarter of them took advantage of the opportunity.
Most were very supportive, but many complained about the lack of a citation service such as Shepard’s from LexisNexis or West’s KeyCite, the absence of circuit court opinions in the Fastcase database, and the lack of citations to cases in the online version of the Virginia Code that Fastcase links to.

Many respondents said they did not use more full-featured research services because they viewed them as too expensive.

Almost a third of them said they had discontinued a fee-based service after they had begun using Fastcase.

Some of the complaints reflect exaggerated expectations – or limitations that perhaps were not adequately explained, said Mary Yancey Spencer, VSB deputy executive director.

Fastcase “is not a substitute for Shepard’s and was never held out to be,” Spencer said. Disclaimers that explain the shortcoming are now more prominently displayed on the site, she noted.

Some of the features that users would like to have added may be possible without too much expense, Spencer said.

The VSB task force reviewed the service before the initial three-year contract for it expired in February, and the absence of a reliable citation service was a major issue pursued by task force members Kevin E. Martingayle and Sarah Louppe Petcher.

The task force acknowledged the shortcoming and insisted on better information about it but extended the contract for an additional year.

Warren said it is realistic to expect that circuit court opinions can be added to the Fastcase database at a reasonable cost.

An annotated code or a citation service of the sophistication of Shepard’s or KeyCite is less realistic, she said.

Those features require the analysis of legal editors, and that’s what justifies the higher cost of LexisNexis and West, she said.

Close this Window Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Print RSS Feed Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments

Connotea del.icio.us Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com

Furl Google Hugg Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace MyWeb

Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot Sphere

Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Twitter Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

More »