Are you harnessing the full power of Google Scholar and other free legal research tools? Charity Anastasio will explain how to be more productive with your legal research efforts and get better results.

1. Google Scholar and Legal Research Tips
#GoogleScholarTIps

3. 3

4. 4

5. About our presenter
Charity Anastasio
‣ Director, Law Office Management
Assistance at Maryland State
Bar Association
‣ Solo Practitioner for 5 years
‣ PMA for almost 4 years
‣ Barred in Washington State
5

6. What we want
Legal research that is
• Accurate
• Current
• Easy to find and follow history, treatment
• Easy to transfer to work product
• Instinctual searches
• Fast searches
• Integrations with office systems
6

7. Presentation Goals
• Introduction to certain free products
• Top features of each
• Understand the limitations and counter them
• Find new solutions to legal research problems
7

8. Poll
• Google Scholar
• Casemaker
• Fastcase
• Court sites
• Other
8
Which of these have you used?
(choose all that apply)

9. Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
9

10. The warning
•Updates to existing records take, on the short end six months, on the long
more than a year
• https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html#coverage
10

11. 11

12. 12

13. 13

14. 14

15. 15

16. 16

17. Google Alerts
17

18. 18

19. Poll
Google Search
Copy citations
Save to library
Google Alerts
None of the above
19
Which Google Scholar features look the most
helpful to your practice?

20. Casemaker
20

21. 21

22. Case Treatment
22

23. 23

24. Citation History
Add content
24

25. Casemaker CiteCheck
25

26. Rules Annotator and TOC
26

27. Casemaker Daily Digest
27

28. Fastcase
28

29. 29

30. 30

31. 31

32. 32

33. 33

34. Poll
• Brief cite checker
• Case treatment indicators
• Interactive timeline/charts
• Interactive keyword visuals
• Daily digest
34
Which of these features look the most helpful to
your practice?

35. Public Library of Law (PLoL)
35
http://www.plol.org/P
ages/Search.aspx

36. FindLaw
36
• http://lp.findlaw.com/
• http://caselaw.findlaw.
com/

37. Justia
37
https://www.justia.com/

38. Court Websites
38

39. Poll
Do you think any of these may save you time,
money, or heartache?
Yes
No
Maybe
I don't know
I’m hopeful
39

40. What we want
Legal research that is
• Accurate
• Current
• Easy to find and link
• Easy to transfer to work product
• Instinctual searches
• Fast searches
• Integrations with office systems *
40

41. Negotiating the limitations
• Use the library's Westlaw or Lexis Nexis account
• Be strategic. Start broad in Google Scholar and narrow in the paid
program
• Shepardizing is a crutch.
• But do the cost benefit analysis and pay where there is too much work
• Be conscious of practice area rhythms, tides and shifts
• Don't have to blindly pay that bill
41

42. Charity Anastasio
http://www.msba.org/LOMA
canastasio@msba.org
443-703-3026
MyCase
www.MyCase.com
support@mycase.com
800-571-8062
Contact Us
42

43. Thank you
43