Legal Research Online Doesn’t Have To Be Expensive. Many State Bars use part of members’ dues to provide services to their lawyer members. One of those services is online legal research. Reported cases, statutes, and regulations are the essentials for advising clients. Florida provides that service to its lawyer members, and I can access any Florida case or statute that I need. However, lawyers also steal from other lawyers’ previous work. Law firms often have brief banks and use copies of work performed in previous cases as resources. Why reinvent the wheel? Solos, like myself, don’t have that advantage. We often call on other lawyers for help and copies of forms and previous work to use as a resource. Perhaps the coolest new part of the FastCase service comes from their acquisition of a brief bank, with pleadings and motions and other work, searchable and usable for legal research. Finding the law is just the beginning for a lawyer. Once found, it must be written in motions, pleadings and briefs, that must be filed with courts. Today’s solo lawyer can have the resources of thousands of law firms, and Florida lawyers get it for the price of Bar membership. It is a brave new world, and one in which a solo lawyer can survive and thrive. Fastcase-logo