When May You Cite to a Headnote in a Legal Brief

West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a company 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 best-known publishers of legal documents in the United States. It is headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota; It also had an office in Rochester, New York until its closure in 2019, and it had an office in Cleveland, Ohio until its closure in 2010. Organisationally, West is part of Thomson Reuters` global legal department. West also reported on the decisions of federal appellate courts in the Federal Reporter and federal district courts in the Federal Supplement, and retroactively published the decisions of all lower federal courts before the NRS in federal cases. All of these journalists are also part of the NRS (National Reporter System), which means that all cases published there are scored by Western lawyer-editors, and all these editors are then indexed in the West American Digest System (and its electronic version, KeyCite) to facilitate cross-reference. Important points to keep in mind when using this guide: West Publishing was founded by John Briggs West. In 1872 he became self-employed under the name John B. West, publisher and bookseller, reprinting legal treatises, publishing legal forms, and compiling an estimated index of Minnesota statutes. He even organized a Swedish version of the state`s rules of practice for the state`s many lawyers and judges of Scandinavian origin. [1]: 1–7 [2]: 115 By 1876 his business had grown to the point where he took his elder brother Horatio (1848-1936) as a partner, and in 1882 the firm was founded with outside investors as the West Publishing Company. [1]: 7–8 His first continuous publication was The Syllabi, a collection of summaries and full-text texts of selected federal and Minnesota court decisions; This proved so popular that in 1877 it was expanded to include Wisconsin courts and renamed The North Western Reporter, and within a few years added coverage of several other states and became the cornerstone of what would become West`s National Reporter System, a system of regional journalists. each known for reporting on appellate decisions of state courts in their region.

The West brothers also introduced the American Digest system by prefixing court decisions with “top notes” that cited (as literally as possible) the assets of the decision and ranked them with key figures, so that analogous stocks of different decisions and even different states could be summarized. [2]:120 West Company was involved in at least three crucial lawsuits early in its history that concluded that state court decisions were in the public domain and not protected by copyright (although West`s guiding principles and key number system may be protected by copyright). [2]: 122 By 1902, the West Publishing Company could boast of having published law books “millions of times.” [3]: 237 [4] In 1995, West A.G. hired Edwards and Goldman Sachs to find potential buyers. Thomson purchased West in 1996. Thomson also consolidated a number of other law firms acquired by 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 purchase, Thomson sold 52 titles (including the Supreme Court Reporter, Lawyers` Edition) to LexisNexis. [5] Today, West also publishes some treatises purchased by Shepard`s (but not Shepard`s Citations). Through these acquisitions, Thomson became one of the “Big Three” legal publishers alongside LexisNexis and Wolters Kluwer. After the acquisition by Thomson, West became known as WIPG, West Information Publishing Group.

From 1997 to 2004, West was known as the Western Group. This guide is intended as a quick reference to selected content from your core legal research course package to help you review the course content and complete your assignments. Technically, all of West`s journalists were originally unofficial journalists published without express permission or court approval. Western journalists have become the de facto nationwide standard used by all federal and most state courts, despite their technically unofficial nature. In fact, more than 20 states have stopped publishing their own official journalists, and some states, with West`s cooperation, have begun to include certificates in the respective Western regional reporter`s volumes to certify him as their official reporter. The two brothers retired to Southern California. [1]:17 In 2009-2010, West began offering buyouts to its U.S. editorial team as it began moving editorial production overseas. In 2013, West sold its academic publishers, including Foundation Press, to Eureka Growth Capital. [6] [7] Some course information and assignments can be accessed from your course`s Blackboard page.