West (publisher)

Last updated
West
West blue.png
Logo used from 1999 to 2008
Parent company Thomson Reuters
Founded1872
Founder John Briggs West
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters location Eagan, Minnesota
Publication types Books, databases
Nonfiction topicsLaw
Official website legal.thomsonreuters.com

West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West has been one of the most prominent publishers of legal materials in the United States. Its headquarters is in Eagan, Minnesota; it also had an office in Rochester, New York, until it closed in 2019, and in Cleveland, Ohio, until it closed in 2010. Organizationally, West is part of the global legal division of Thomson Reuters.

Contents

History

West Publishing was founded by John Briggs West. In 1872, he went into business for himself as "John B. West, Publisher and Book Seller", reprinting legal treatises, publishing legal forms, and producing an index to the Minnesota statutes. He even arranged for a Swedish-language version of the state's rules of practice, for the state's many Scandinavian-born lawyers and judges. [1] : 1–7  [2] : 115  In 1876, his business had expanded to the point that he took on his older brother, Horatio (1848–1936) as a partner, and in 1882, with a couple of outside investors, the enterprise was incorporated as "West Publishing Company". [1] : 7–8  Their first continuing publication was The Syllabi, a collection of the summaries of all, and the full texts of some, of the decisions of the State and federal courts of Minnesota; this proved so popular that in 1877 it was expanded to include the courts of Wisconsin and renamed The North Western Reporter and within a couple of years added coverage of several more states and became the cornerstone of what was to become West's National Reporter System (NRS), a system of regional reporters, each of which became known for reporting state court appellate decisions within its region. The West brothers also introduced the American Digest System, prefacing the court decisions with "headnotes" quoting (as nearly verbatim as possible) the holdings of the decision and categorized with key numbers so that analogous holdings from different decisions and even from different states could be grouped together. [2] : 120  The West company was embroiled in at least three crucial lawsuits early in its history, which established that state court decisions were in the public domain and not copyrighted (although West's headnotes and key number system could be copyrighted). [2] : 122  By 1902, the West Publishing Company could boast of publishing law books "by the millions". [3] : 237  [4]

West also publishes decisions of the federal Courts of Appeals in the Federal Reporter and of the federal district courts in the Federal Supplement , and retroactively republished the decisions of all lower federal courts predating the NRS in Federal Cases . All these reporters are also part of the NRS, meaning that all cases published therein are annotated with headnotes by West attorney-editors, and all those headnotes are then indexed in the West American Digest System (and its electronic version, KeyCite) for easy cross-referencing.

Technically, all of West's reporters were originally unofficial reporters published without the express authorization or endorsement of the courts. West reporters have become the nationwide de facto standard used by all federal courts and most state courts, despite their technically unofficial nature. Indeed, over 20 states have discontinued publication of their own official reporters, and a few states with West's cooperation began inserting certificates in the volumes of the relevant West regional reporter to certify it as their official reporter.

Both brothers retired to southern California. [1] : 17  Ironically, California does not use West's reporters, and, pursuant to the California Style Manual, citations are solely to the official reporters, either Cal. or Cal. App.

In 1995, West retained the services of A.G. Edwards and Goldman Sachs in a search for potential purchasers. Thomson purchased West in 1996. Thomson also consolidated into West a number of other law book companies purchased by either Thomson or West, including Bancroft-Whitney, Banks-Baldwin, Barclay, Callaghan & Company, Clark Boardman, Foundation Press, Gilbert's, Harrison, Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, and Warren, Gorham & Lamont. As a condition of the purchase, Thomson sold 52 titles (including the Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition) to LexisNexis. [5] Today, West also publishes some treatise titles purchased from Shepard's (but not Shepard's Citations). Through these acquisitions, Thomson has become one of the "big three" legal publishers, along with LexisNexis and Wolters Kluwer. Following the acquisition by Thomson, West was known as WIPG, West Information Publishing Group. From 1997 to 2004, West was known as "West Group".

In 2009–10, West began offering buyouts to its U.S. editorial staff as it began to move editorial production overseas. In 2013, West sold its academic publishing, including Foundation Press, to Eureka Growth Capital. [6] [7]

West products and services

Related Research Articles

The West American Digest System is a system of identifying points of law from reported cases and organizing them by topic and key number. The system was developed by West Publishing to organize the entire body of American law. This extensive taxonomy makes the process of doing case law legal research less time consuming as it directs the researcher to cases that are similar to the legal issue under consideration.

Wexis is a humorous portmanteau used to refer to the alleged duopoly of publishing conglomerates that dominate the U.S. legal information services industry – namely, West Publishing and LexisNexis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Case citation</span> System for uniquely identifying individual rulings of a court

Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported. Case citations are formatted differently in different jurisdictions, but generally contain the same key information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westlaw</span> Online legal research service

Westlaw is an online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal statutes, administrative codes, newspaper and magazine articles, public records, law journals, law reviews, treatises, legal forms and other information resources.

In American law, the American Law Reports are a resource used by American lawyers to find a variety of sources relating to specific legal rules, doctrines, or principles. It has been published since 1919, originally by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, and currently by West and remains an important tool for legal research.

<i>Commonwealth Law Reports</i> Reports of decisions of the High Court of Australia

The Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) are the authorised reports of decisions of the High Court of Australia. The Commonwealth Law Reports are published by the Lawbook Company, a division of Thomson Reuters. James Merralls AM QC was the editor of the Reports from 1969 until his death in 2016. The current editors are Paul Vout KC and Peter Willis SC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HeinOnline</span> Online database for legal materials

HeinOnline (HOL) is a commercial internet database service launched in 2000 by William S. Hein & Co., a Buffalo, New York publisher specializing in legal materials. The company was founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1961, and is currently based in nearby Getzville, New York. In 2013, WSH Co. was the 33rd largest private company in western New York, with revenues of around $33 million and more than seventy employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law report</span> Type of series of books that contain case law

Law reports or reporters are series of books that contain judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts. When a particular judicial opinion is referenced, the law report series in which the opinion is printed will determine the case citation format.

Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and communication of the results of the investigation."

A casebook is a type of textbook used primarily by students in law schools. Rather than simply laying out the legal doctrine in a particular area of study, a casebook contains excerpts from legal cases in which the law of that area was applied. It is then up to the student to analyze the language of the case in order to determine what rule was applied and how the court applied it. Casebooks sometimes also contain excerpts from law review articles and legal treatises, historical notes, editorial commentary, and other related materials to provide background for the cases.

West's National Reporter System (NRS) is a set of case law reporters for federal courts and appellate state courts in the United States. It started with the North Western Reporter in 1879 which has its origin in The Syllabi.

<i>Federal Reporter</i> Case law reporting in US courts

The Federal Reporter is a case law reporter in the United States that is published by West Publishing and a part of the National Reporter System. It begins with cases decided in 1880; pre-1880 cases were later retroactively compiled by West Publishing into a separate reporter, Federal Cases. The fourth and current Federal Reporter series publishes decisions of the United States courts of appeals and the United States Court of Federal Claims; prior series had varying scopes that covered decisions of other federal courts as well. Though the Federal Reporter is an unofficial reporter and West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the United States that legal professionals, including judges, uniformly cite to the Federal Reporter for included decisions. Approximately 30 new volumes are published each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Appendix</span> Federal appellate case law reporter (2001–2021)

The Federal Appendix was a case law reporter published by West Publishing from 2001 to 2021. It collected judicial opinions of the United States courts of appeals that were not expressly selected or designated for publication. Such "unpublished" cases are ostensibly without value as precedent. However, the Supreme Court made a change to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure in 2006. Now, Rule 32.1 says that federal circuit courts are not allowed to prohibit the citation of unpublished opinions issued on or after January 1, 2007. Nevertheless, principles articulated in an opinion designated as "not for publication" are treated by the judges of that circuit as not necessarily binding on future panels hearing similar cases, nor on the district judges within the circuit.

<i>Federal Supplement</i> American case law reporter that compiles opinions of the U.S. District Courts

The Federal Supplement is a case law reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select opinions of the United States district courts since 1932, and is part of the National Reporter System. Although the Federal Supplement is an unofficial reporter and West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the U.S. that legal professionals uniformly cite the Federal Supplement for included decisions. Approximately 40 new volumes are published per year.

Legal research is the process of identifying and retrieving information to support legal arguments and decisions. Finding relevant legal information can be challenging and may involve the use of electronic research tools as well as printed books and materials. However, many resources that are useful for legal research are fee-based, and many are not easily accessible.

Computer-assisted legal research (CALR) or computer-based legal research is a mode of legal research that uses databases of court opinions, statutes, court documents, and secondary material. Electronic databases make large bodies of case law easily available. Databases also have additional benefits, such as Boolean searches, evaluating case authority, organizing cases by topic, and providing links to cited material. Databases are available through paid subscription or for free.

<i>Federal Cases</i>

Federal Cases, circuit and district courts, 1789–1880 was a reporter of cases decided by the United States district and circuit courts between 1789 and 1880. It is part of the National Reporter System.

The United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition, or Lawyers' Edition, is an unofficial reporter of Supreme Court of the United States opinions. The Lawyers' Edition was established by the Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company of Rochester, New York in 1882, and features coverage of Supreme Court decisions going back to 1790. The first Lawyers' Edition series corresponds to the official United States Reports from volume 1 to volume 351, whereas the second series contains cases starting from the official reporter volume 352. It is currently published by LexisNexis.

The law of Illinois, a state of the United States, consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law, as well as case law and local law. Illinois state law is promulgated under the Illinois State Constitution. The Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) form the general statutory law. The case law of the Illinois Supreme Court and state appellate courts is currently published online under a public domain reporting system. Interpretations of law and conflicts among the various levels of law are referred to the Illinois courts in suits for application of common law. The states administrative law is published in codified form in the Illinois Administrative Code. Local ordinances are published by the respective local authorities, which are granted that authority under state law.

The law of the U.S. state of Georgia consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law, as well as case law and local law. The Official Code of Georgia Annotated forms the general statutory law.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jarvis, Robert. M. (January 2008). "John B. West: Founder of the West Publishing Company". American Journal of Legal History. 50 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1093/ajlh/50.1.1. JSTOR   25664481.
  2. 1 2 3 Woxland, Thomas A. (11 July 1985). ""Forever Associated with the Practice of Law": The Early Years of the West Publishing Company". Legal Reference Services Quarterly. 5 (1): 115–124. doi:10.1300/J113v05n01_07.
  3. ↑ Davies, Ross E. (Winter 2012). "How West Law was Made: The company, its products, and its promotions" (PDF). Charleston Law Review. 6 (2): 231–282. SSRN   2034499.
  4. ↑ Law Books by the Million. West Publishing. 1901. reprinted in Davies, Ross E. (Spring 2011). "West's Words, Ho! Law Books by the Million, Plus a Few" (PDF). Green Bag 2d . 14 (3): 301–339. page 311.
  5. ↑ Justice Department and Seven State Attorneys General Approve Sale of Thomson Corp. Legal Publishing Products to Reed-Elsevier Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved July 3, 2021, from https://www.justice.gov/archive/atr/public/press_releases/1997/1891.htm
  6. ↑ Turner, Kris (February 13, 2013). "Thomson Reuters Sells Law School Publishing Division". WisBlawg. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  7. ↑ "Where Innovation Meets Tradition in Legal Education". West Academic. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
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