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Fastcase tips

  • March 9, 2016 | Practice News
    A Quick Introduction to Fastcase

    If you only have 5-6 minutes to spare and want a lightning overview of the Fastcase service, take a look at the video below:

  • October 3, 2013 | Member Services | Practice News
    Spot negative citation history with “Bad Law Bot”

    Fastcase has enhanced its Authority Check feature to show you where courts have noted that a case has been treated negatively (i.e., reversed or overruled on any grounds). The new feature, "Bad Law Bot," uses algorithms to find negative citation history.  Bad Law Bot then flags those cases that have negative citation history and provides you with the links to those cases.  Keep in mind that Bad Law Bot is not intended to be a complete replacement for a full editorial citator or for reading all later-citing cases. A red flag means that there's likely negative treatment, since a court has said as much by their use of a negative citation, but no red flag does not necessarily mean that a case is still good law. If a case has been overturned but no court opinion has cited to it yet, Bad Law Bot won't be able to find any citation signal information.

    Bad Law Bot is a part of Fastcase’s Authority Check, which means it’s free to you as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association.  For more information, visit www.fastcase.com/badlawbot.

  • February 23, 2010 | Practice News
    Fastcase tip: Make your own annotations
    Fastcase Tips: Make Your Own Annotations on Fastcase Annotated statute products are great for statute research – especially for providing lists of cases that cite a particular code section.  But did you know that you can make your own annotations on Fastcase? To SEARCH for cases that cite a particular statute:
    1. Enter the statute citation in quotes in the Advanced Case Law Search box.   Or, enter the statute citation with keywords that discuss your issue:  “720 ILCS 125/2” or “720 ILCS 125/2” AND specific intent
    2. Choose Boolean Phrase as your Search Type.
    3. Select the appropriate jurisdictions for your statute under Select Jurisdiction.
    4. Click Search.
  • February 16, 2010 | Practice News
    Fastcase tip: Send your search results to another Fastcase user
    Fastcase always provides static urls** for search results (and cases).  That means you can save search results as bookmarks or send them to other Fastcase users.  Just follow these simple steps to send your search results to another Fastcase user:
    1. Run a search.
    2. When you are on the results screen, copy and paste the url into an e-mail and send to the desired recipient.
    3. Your recipient can access your search results by copying and pasting the url into her browser window after logging in to Fastcase.
    **Not sure what a url is?  “Url” stands for “uniform resource locator.”  Think of it as a type of address that tells your web browser where to access information from within Fastcase.  Urls are displayed in the address bar (usually at the top) of your web browser.  Fastcase urls begin with:  “https://.” Questions? Call us at 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central Mon-Fri) or e-mail support@fastcase.com.
  • January 26, 2010 | Member Services | Practice News
    Fastcase tip: Free 24-hour trial
    As a member of the ISBA, you have free access to the following caselaw:
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • U.S. Circuit Courts
    • U.S. District Courts for Illinois
    • 50-state supreme and appeals courts.
    If you need a U.S. District Court case from another jurisdiction or a U.S. Bankruptcy Court case, sign up for a 24-hour trial at www.fastcase.com and grab it for free. If you have a continued need for cases like this, subscribe to the Fastcase premium plan for $195 per year. Questions? Call us at 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central Mon-Fri) or e-mail support@fastcase.com.
  • January 12, 2010 | Practice News
    Fastcase tip: Find the most frequently cited case for your issue
    After you have run a keyword search, use Fastcase to find the case cited most often in other cases containing your search terms.  Follow these steps to speed up your research: 1. Go to the "Advanced Caselaw Search" page. Enter your search terms.  For example: search and car 2. Next, move to the bottom of the Advanced Caselaw Search page. Under "Authority Check," check the box next to "Show Number of Citations in Search Results." 3. Click "Search." 4. On the Results page, under "Authority Check," click on "These Results." This will resort your search results according to how often each case has been cited in other cases containing your search terms. 5. Now, the first case in the list is the case most frequently cited in other cases discussing your issue. Questions? Call us at 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central Mon-Fri) or e-mail support@fastcase.com.
  • January 5, 2010 | Practice News
    Fastcase tip: Pull and print 20 cases in 3 minutes
    Next time you find yourself with a list of cases you need to print, try using Fastcase to pull and print them as one document.  Here's how: 1.  From your homepage, click "Advanced Caselaw Search."  Then, click the circle next to "Citation Lookup." 2. Enter citations for up to 20 cases you'd like to print - separating the citations with commas.  Click "Search." 3. Click the small printer with a "plus sign" to the left of each result; each "plus sign" will become a "minus sign" - this means that the cases are now in your print queue. 4. Open the Fastcase "Print" dropdown menu.  Click "View Print Queue" and to see a list of all the cases to be printed. 5. Select a preferred format for printing: Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat PDF, and Rich Text Form are available. 6. Click Print/Save and your computer will ask if you want to open the document.  Click "Open" or "OK."  Your cases will open as one document with page breaks between cases.  Print as you would print any other document. Questions? Call 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central) or email: support@fastcase.com.
  • December 29, 2009 | Practice News
    Fastcase tip of the week: Batch printing
    Did you know that you can print up to 20 cases at a time? 1. Add documents to your print queue. Add documents to your print queue one of two ways. From the results page: Each case on your results list has a Print Queue icon to the left of the screen. The Print Queue icon looks like a printer with a plus sign on it. Click on the Print Queue icon to add a case to your queue. When the case has been added, the plus sign on the icon will turn into a minus sign. While browsing a case: Click on the Add to My Print Queue link at the top right of the screen. 2. Review your queue. To review your print queue, select View Print Queue from the Print menu. To remove the case from your print queue, click on the icon again. 3. Print. Once you have made your formatting selections, click the Print/Save button.  The cases listed on your print queue will begin downloading as a single document on your computer. Open the file using the appropriate program (e.g. MS Word, Adobe Acrobat, Word Perfect) and then print the document by selecting Print from the File menu. Questions? Call us at 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central Mon-Fri) or e-mail support@fastcase.com.
  • December 15, 2009 | Practice News
    Fastcase tip of the week: Retrieve your favorite cases anywhere
    Use Fastcase to create your own personal library of up to 10 favorite cases with just one click.  Once you have added cases to your library, you can access them easily anytime without searching.
    • To add a case to your library, just click on the link labeled Add to My Favorites at the top right hand side of the screen.
    • To access the cases in your library, just select Go To Favorite Documents from the My Library menu.
    Bonus:  Did you know that Fastcase automatically saves the last 10 cases you have accessed automatically in your library?  To access this personalized case history, simply select Go to Recent Documents from the My Library menu. Questions? Call us at 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central Mon-Fri) or e-mail support@fastcase.com.
  • December 8, 2009 | Practice News
    Fastcase tips of the week: E-mail a case and Live Chat

    E-mail a case

    You asked for it and Fastcase delivered. In response to popular demand by our users, we recently rolled out our e-mail feature which allows you to e-mail a case to yourself or to your colleagues or clients. Just follow these simple steps: 1. When you are browsing a case, simply click on the Email Beta! link towards the upper right hand side of the page. 2. This will bring you to the E-mail Document Window.  Here you can enter in the recipient's e-mail address. The e-mail address you used to register with Fastcase will always be filled-in by default, but you can click in the Send E-mail To: box and change the e-mail address to anything you like. 3. Click on the Send Email button. That's it! The case you selected will be delivered shortly. The e-mail is will be addressed from support@fastcase.com and the case text will be in the body of the e-mail. Tip: To ensure that Fastcase e-mails are not caught by your junk e-mail or spam filters, add support@fastcase.com to your list of trusted senders.

    Live Chat

    At Fastcase, our mission is to help you work smarter, not harder. Our live customer support is an important part of this mission and Live Chat is one of the best ways to take advantage of this service. It works just like an instant-messaging program and allows you to get personalized help while multi-tasking at the same time.