If you’ve enjoyed the recent mudslinging, epithet tossing, and name calling surrounding health care, but have wearied of the topic, don’t despair. You may now enjoy the same between legal research services.

Casemaker recently accused its competitor Fastcase of missing hundreds of case citations.  Fastcase countered; Casemaker responded. Pull up your chair, the match has begun.

Hard to tell at this point if this is a Coke v. Pepsi debate – both quench your thirst – or will morph into a story about true important shortcomings in one service over another. Casemaker has refused to make the alleged complete list of missing citations public (concentrating on the “top 50″ in each jurisdiction), pointing out that doing so would enable Fastcase to correct its database. Right now, the water is muddy at best. Both services are also facing a challenge from the recent availability of legal opinions and journals in Google Scholar (which, as we noted, has its own issues).

If Casemaker’s allegations are true, Fastcase will surely scramble to fix any problems. A legal research service couldn’t rest on the slogan that Avis used to combat Hertz. “We try harder” would not hold sway with attorneys or with bar associations that spend a pretty penny to provide these services to member attorneys.

We are watching the “skirmish” between both services closely. Both services offer a tremendous value to bar members, especially in light of the reports of WestLawNext’s pricing model. Ouch. The MSBA has asked Fastcase to address the issue of missing citations. Fastcase so far responded that it is an issue for all online legal research services — big and small– but also assured us that the company is  “at the end” of a multi-million dollar process to upgrade its database. That’s good news, and we’ll provide updates as we learn more.

The exchanges between Casemaker and Fastcase are interesting. Casemaker described a history of service upgrades, noting that Fastcase upgrades followed closely thereafter as the two services battle for the bar association dollar. What struck me was not that Fastcase upgrades came later, but that the competition between them has greatly benefited us, the consumer. So, for now, I am content to sit back and let the fight continue.