West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...
that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as
Westlaw
Westlaw is an Computer-assisted legal research, 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 ca ...
. 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
Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...
, until it closed in 2019, and in
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...
, until it closed in 2010. Organizationally, West is part of the global legal division of Thomson Reuters.
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.
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". 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
reporter
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
s, 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.
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). By 1902, the West Publishing Company could boast of publishing law books "by the millions".
West also publishes decisions of the
federal Courts of Appeals in the ''
Federal Reporter
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 b ...
'' and of the
federal district courts in the ''
Federal Supplement
The ''Federal Supplement'' () is a case law reporter (law), reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select court decision, opinions of the United States district courts since 1932, and is part of the National R ...
'', 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. 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
LexisNexis is an American data analytics company headquartered in New York, New York. Its products are various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper searc ...
. 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
LexisNexis is an American data analytics company headquartered in New York, New York. Its products are various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper searc ...
and
Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer N.V. is a Dutch information services company. The company serves legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare markets.
Wolters Kluwer in its current form was founded in 1987 with a merger bet ...
. 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.
West products and services
*AAJ Press
* ''American Casebook'' series
* ''
American Jurisprudence''
* ''
American Law Reports''
* Aspatore Books
* ''Black Letter'' series
* ''
Black's Law Dictionary''
* Calendars
*
Case law
Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is a law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of ...
* CLE programs
* ''Concepts and Insights'' series
* Contact networks
* ''
Corpus Juris Secundum''
* Court rules
* Dictionaries/desk references
* Digests
* Document retrieval services
* ''Exam Pro'' series
* ''
Federal Reporter
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 b ...
''
* ''
Federal Supplement
The ''Federal Supplement'' () is a case law reporter (law), reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select court decision, opinions of the United States district courts since 1932, and is part of the National R ...
''
*
Findlaw
* Forms
* Handbooks
* ''Hornbook'' series
*
Jury instructions
Jury instructions, also known as charges or directions, are a set of legal guidelines given by a judge to a jury in a court of law. They are an important procedural step in a trial by jury, and as such are a cornerstone of criminal process in many ...
* Keycite and Citators
* Law firm marketing services
*
Law review
A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also provide ...
s and journals
* Law school casebooks
* Law school publications
* Lawyering skills
* Legal assistant/paralegal
* Legal encyclopedias
* LiveNote
* ''Nutshell'' series
* Practical Law
* Practitioner treatises
* Public records
*
Reporters
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, adverti ...
* ''
Restatements of the Law
In American jurisprudence, the ''Restatements of the Law'' are a set of treatises on legal subjects that seek to inform judges and lawyers about general principles of common law. There are now four series of ''Restatements'', all published by the ...
''
*
Rutter Group
*
Statute
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
s
* ''Supreme Court Reporter''
* ''Turning Point'' series
* ''Uniform Laws Annotated''
* ''
United States Code Congressional and Administrative News''
* ''University Casebook'' series
* ''University Textbook'' series
* ''USCA'' (''
United States Code Annotated'')
*
West American Digest System
*
Westlaw
Westlaw is an Computer-assisted legal research, 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 ca ...
*
WestlawNext
* West Court Reporting Services
*
West LegalEdcenter
*
Words And Phrases
References
External links
West Publishing Companyin ''
MNopedia'' (the Minnesota Encyclopedia)
{{DEFAULTSORT:West (Publisher)
Book publishing companies based in Minnesota
Companies based in Eagan, Minnesota
Bibliographic database providers
Publishing companies established in 1872
Legal publishers
1872 establishments in Minnesota