For years, the legal research industry has been dominated by two names, Westlaw and LexisNexis. Well those times are changing. Welcome Fastcase, Inc. Fastcase is the brainchild of Ed Walters and Phil Rosenthal, two former lawyers who have traded in the practice of law for the business world. Fastcase is an online legal research engine that can be best described as an easy to use, high quality alternative to Westlaw and LexisNexis. Started in 1999, the company is building steam now as more and more bar associations and mid-sized law firms begin to try the new service.

“What we try to do here is use new technology to make legal research easier and faster,” explains CEO Ed Walters. Eight and a half years after its inception, the company is pushing forward faster than ever. They currently have 300,000 subscribers, most of which come from Bar Association memberships who offer it free for their members. For example, if you are a member of the Virginia State Bar, you have access to all of Fastcase’s services for free.

The theory, an easily searchable database of case law, with results displayed exactly the way you need them, is catching on at firms who have been hesitant to change. They allow each user to customize their search results through a number of different ways, including showing those cases that are cited the most first. This makes sorting through cases faster and more efficient, saving lawyers time and money.

There is no new system to learn, no extensive training required, and the future is very bright. They are introducing a new interactive timeline display, as a much more appealing way to view search results. This viewer display cases in a search along a timeline, charting the cases relevance as compared to similar results. This makes finding the right cases easier than ever before.

In addition, Fastcase plans to launch a new service later this year. State statutes, which have previously been difficult to find and maneuver on the web, will now be part of the Fastcase database. Statutes from all 50 states will be searchable, and easily viewed on the website. This is a great addition to Fastcase’s extensive information center, which includes the largest free law library in the world, located at plol.org. “We are democratizing the assets of the law,” Ed says as he explains why people have found Fastcase to be so helpful. It is clear that there is a new face in the legal research industry that will be here to stay.