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Bar News - February 22, 2002 New Member Benefit Online for Fall 2002 Casemaker comes to NH A UNIQUE ONLINE legal research tool offering access to a powerful combination of state and federal materials - Casemaker - will be launched for New Hampshire Bar Association members in November 2002. Originally created by the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) and Lawriter, Inc., Casemaker assists solo and small practitioners by giving them access to reliable online legal research and aids larger law firms in lowering their monthly online legal research spending. The ease and reliability of conducting legal research with Casemaker and the ability of bar associations to offer this service to its members for low or no cost levels the playing field for law firms of varying size and resources. The New Hampshire Bar Association is proud to announce it has joined Ohio, Nebraska, North Carolina, Connecticut and Massachusetts in the Casemaker legal research consortium. "For many lawyers in (the consortium) states, Casemaker can fulfill most, if not all, of their computer-assisted online legal research needs," said OSBA Executive Director Denny L. Ramey. "For some practitioners, Casemaker augments other online legal research tools. Casemaker is a cost saver - a benefit for practice management and potentially for consumers of legal services." After being introduced to the Casemaker legal research service in October 2001 at a New England Bar Association meeting hosted by the NHBA in Bartlett, the NH Bar leadership moved quickly to investigate the potential of this new member benefit. In November of 2001, NH Bar members were asked through an e-mail and Bar News survey for their feedback on developing online legal research for the Bar. After reviewing survey responses, feedback from the Bar's Technology Task Force, and the experiences in other states, the Board of Governors adopted the recommendation of its Member Services Committee to establish a NH Casemaker library online. "I believe that Casemaker is not only a revolutionary member service, but will benefit the public and the administration of justice as well by guaranteeing that every licensed New Hampshire attorney will have complete access to all New Hampshire state and federal law," said NHBA President Peter E. Hutchins. "This is a clear benefit to clients of licensed attorneys in this state, as well as to the judicial system, which has an interest in seeing that people who appear before the courts of this state know the law of this state and practice accordingly," Hutchins said. A portion of the Bar's Operating Mission states: "To serve the members by connecting them with services, programs and resources necessary to function effectively as members of the profession." NH Bar Executive Director Jeannine McCoy noted, "Casemaker is one way for us to fulfill this crucial part of our mission. Members will be able to access this service 24/7 from anywhere they can access the 'For Members' area of our Web site. A low-cost CD-ROM option exists for situations where Internet access isn't available." "The easy-to-use yet sophisticated search capabilities of Casemaker are impressive, as is the idea of using this tool without having to 'watch the clock' to learn computer-assisted legal research techniques and to keep a lid on research expenses," McCoy added. Each state considering Casemaker and conducting a membership survey has received the same type of response - overwhelmingly positive. Based on NH survey responses, the NH Casemaker library will initially contain New Hampshire Supreme Court decisions back to 1874, RSAs, Session Laws, court rules and the New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules. The Casemaker library also features federal materials and, as part of the growing Casemaker Consortium, NH Bar members will be able to access the libraries of other member states - currently Ohio, Nebraska, North Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Michigan. Updates to the Casemaker library are made as needed. For instance, NH Supreme Court decisions will be updated within 48 hours of a new decision being released. NH RSAs will be given a complete annual revision. New Hampshire Bar Association members will be able to access Casemaker through the Bar's Web site with an assigned password. Casemaker will also produce CD-ROMs containing many of the same resources as the online version and using the nationally known Premise search engine. Updated four times a year, the CD-ROM version will be available for purchase at a very low cost to members. Lawriter will be compiling the library of New Hampshire materials over the next nine months in preparation for the launch of NH Casemaker. There are plans to make a tutorial available on the Bar's Web site this summer that will feature the Ohio Bar library for NHBA members to search, as a preview of the New Hampshire library. During the fall of 2002, the Bar will offer instructional seminars to educate members on using Casemaker. If you have any questions regarding Casemaker, please contact Brenda Thomas, Member Services/Sections coordinator, at (603) 224-6942, ext. 258 or via e-mail at bthomas@nhbar.org.
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