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(Oklahoma City – Jan. 2, 2007) – Fastcase and the Oklahoma Bar Association announce that they are working together to provide all state bar members with free online access to a comprehensive national law library. Under the terms of the agreement, Oklahoma lawyers will have free access to cases back to 1950 from all 50 states, as well as all cases from the inception of the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals since 1924, federal district courts from 1914 and federal bankruptcy courts back to 1979 to the present. The benefit also includes free access to statutes, administrative regulations, court rules and the constitutions from all 50 states.

Oklahoma joins a growing number of states to offer Fastcase’s member benefit, including The Florida Bar, Illinois State Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Maryland State Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association, Iowa State Bar Association and Social Law Library, the membership library of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The Tennessee Bar Association joins Oklahoma in launching the Fastcase service today as well.

“This is a great example of state bar associations providing value for their members,” said Fastcase’s Chief Executive Officer Ed Walters. “By purchasing access in bulk, the Oklahoma Bar Association is achieving unprecedented savings for its members.”

Oklahoma bar members can access Fastcase via the OBA Web site at www.okbar.org, which contains a link to the legal research Web site. Members log in using the same username and password for the other members-only portion of the state bar site.

OBA 2007 President Stephen Beam of Weatherford said, “Because most Oklahoma lawyers are either sole practitioners or practice in small firms, this new free research tool could significantly lower their expenses. That savings can be passed on to benefit clients, who would be charged lower fees.”

Beam said funding for the member benefit comes from annual dues paid by more than 15,000 association members. Both the time-saving and economic impact of the new benefit makes it one of the best perks the OBA has offered its members in many years.

“Oklahoma lawyers have always had a great statewide library through the Oklahoma State Courts Network,” said Fastcase President Philip Rosenthal. “The new benefit complements the OSCN law library by putting the complete national law library on the desktops of thousands of lawyers who previously could not afford comprehensive online access,” said Rosenthal. “Because legal research has always been so expensive, lawyers have had to choose between no access or limited access to the law. With the Fastcase benefit, lawyers can better assist their clients and better prepare their cases.”

Walters said, “This will make it easier for lawyers to find the law, and it will make Oklahoma lawyers more competitive in interstate practice. The Oklahoma bar benefit also makes pro bono work more affordable, and it could help improve the quality of practice before Oklahoma courts.”

With the launch of member benefits in Oklahoma and Tennessee, more than 250,000 lawyers, or more than one lawyer in four in the United States, has a subscription to Fastcase. Since 2005, lawyers have increasingly used Fastcase as a free benefit of their state bar association, as an alternative to other subscription services.

For more information on Fastcase, you can visit its Web site at www.fastcase.com. OBA members will not be able to log in from the Fastcase Web site. To log in, go to www.okbar.org.

The Oklahoma Bar Association, headquartered in Oklahoma City, was created by the Oklahoma Supreme Court to advance the administration of justice and to foster and maintain learning, integrity, competence, public service and high standards of conduct among Oklahoma's legal community.

Contacts:

Ed Walters
Fastcase, Inc.
(703) 740-5920, or at
press@fastcase.com.
P.O. Box 26055
Alexandria, VA 22313

Carol Manning
Oklahoma Bar Association
(405) 416-7016
(405) 202-5001 cell
carolm@okbar.org

About Fastcase
Fastcase is the premiere American provider of online legal research, with more than 250,000 subscribers around the world. The company's patent-pending research software helps busy legal professionals sort through the clutter, ranking the best cases first, and enabling users to re-sort search results to find answers fast. Fastcase brings the whole law library directly to your desktop -- providing online access to millions of cases, statutes, and regulations, and at a fraction of the cost of existing alternatives. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. and founded in 1999. It was built by lawyers and for lawyers, with the input of specialists in legal research, library science and law. Fastcase's mission is to make better research available to more by promoting innovation in research, offering better value and creating new choices in the marketplace.