The KBA casemaker project to increase dues 

 Justice Wintersheimer published an article in the April edition of  the Lex Loci magazine of the No. Ky. Bar Association detailing a project by the Ky. Bar Association to establish a case law data base on the KBA web site, and to finance this project by imposing a dues increase of all l4,700 Kentucky lawyers.  The dues increase will raise some $150,000 a year from Kentucky lawyers for the CaseMaker project.

Justice Wintersheimer states that the project is known as the CaseMaker project.  CaseMaker is a company that provides access to case law data bases to some 20 states.

The Bench and Bar published a story in February which mentioned the project.  After learning about the project  LawReader contacted the KBA Board and asked to be given an opportunity to demonstrate its product. While they acknowledged our letter and invited us to submit a bid....we were not given an opportunity to demonstrate our product.   

On May 16, 2005 Bruce Davis of the KBA announced that the contract had been awarded to Casemaker. The company predicts it will take nine months to compile a data base of Ky. cases, and then the program will be implemented in Ky.  

 It is known that a second company (Versuslaw) made a bid to provide a far superior product (i.e. cases of all 50 states instead of just 20 states) and to match the price of CaseMaker.  The Versulaw database allows access to the decisions of all fifty states from one screen and to conduct a 50 state search in one submission.

The Casemaker program requires you to access each of the 20 + states individually.

Justice Wintersheimer in his article stated that he was concerned that the Bar would be taking in  $40,000 a year more than the cost of the project, and that he felt the dues increase should be smaller than that proposed by the KBA Board.  The KBA Board has asked permission to shift $50,000 from its building fund to initiate this project during its first year.  

 The KBA plan will be mandatory for all licensed lawyers. 

We don’t know at this time the magnitude of the effect of this project upon LawReader.  LawReader provides far more resources than any case law data base. 

 LawReader CEO Gwen Billingsley says:

 “We are committed to continuing  our efforts to provide the largest quantity of material on Kentucky law available online.  We hope that the KBA will make concessions to our users, so that they will not be billed twice for access to the data base.  It is unfortunate that the KBA is choosing to involve themselves in this project, when LawReader (a Kentucky based company) already provides a far superior total product, to users in over 101 Kentucky cities.  LawReader is paid for by users who elect to sign up. The Bar project will require that all lawyers join in their plan, and pay for it regardless of any desire to ever use their data base.  

We will keep you posted on the progress of the CaseMaker project.  If you have any comments about this project you have the right to write the KBA Board of Governors and express your opinion.

CONTACT LIST FOR KBA BOARD OF GOVERNORS:

District 1

Mark C. Whitlow
Whitlow, Roberts, Houston & Straub, PLLC
300 Broadway Street
PO Box 995
Paducah, Kentucky 42002-0995
(270) 443-4516
(270) 443-4571 fax


C.A. Woodall, III
Woodall & Quinn
PO Box 1549
Cadiz, Kentucky 42211-1549
(270) 522-3481
(270) 522-3483 fax District 2

Charles E. English, Jr.
English, Lucacs, Priest & Owsley
PO Box 770
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42102-0770
(270) 781-6500
(270) 782-7782 fax


Charles E. Moore
Moore, Malone & Safreed
PO Box 549
Owensboro, Kentucky 42302-0549
(270) 683-4513
(270) 683-4565 fax

District 3

R. Scott Madden
116 Lawyer Street, Suite 2
Manchester, Kentucky 40962
(606) 598-6124
(606) 598-6129 fax

Jane Winkler Dyche
PO Box 5156
London, Kentucky 40745
(606) 877-2991
(606) 877-9973 fax

            District 4

Michael J. O'Connell
Parker & O'Connell
The Starks Building
455 South 4th Avenue, Suite 930
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
(502) 584-7196
(502) 589-7451 fax

Joseph L. White
Joseph L. White & Associates
1469 South 4th Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40208-2118
(502) 634-4454
(502) 634-5033 fax

District 5

Douglas L. McSwain
Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC
155 East Main Street, Suite 400
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
(859) 255-8581
(859) 231-0851 fax

Shelby C. Kinkead, Jr.
Kinkead & Stilz, PLLC
National City Plaza
301 East Main Street, Suite 800
Lexington, Kentucky 40507-1520
(859) 296-2300
(859) 296-2566 fax        

District 6

Margo L. Grubbs
Margo L. Grubbs Associates, PSC
PO Box 17808
Covington, Kentucky 41017
(859) 341-2500
(859)331-1153 fax

Barbara D. Bonar
Law Offices of B. Dahlenburg Bonar, PSC
3611 Decoursey Avenue
Covington, Kentucky 41015
(859) 431-3333
(859) 392-3900 fax

District 7

John M. Rosenberg
147 Clark Drive
Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653
(606) 886-8851
(606) 886-1455 fax

Donald H. Combs
Combs & Combs
Post Office Drawer 31
Pikeville, Kentucky 41502-0031
(606) 437-6226
(606) 432-4414 fax

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