West (publisher)
Encyclopedia
West publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw
Westlaw
Westlaw is one of the primary online legal research services for lawyers and legal professionals in the United States and is a part of West. In addition, it provides proprietary database services...

. Since the late 19th century, West has been one of the most prominent publishers of legal materials in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Its headquarters is in Eagan, Minnesota
Eagan, Minnesota
Eagan is a city south of Saint Paul in Dakota County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. Eagan and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the fifteenth largest...

; it also has offices in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

 and Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

. Organizationally, West is part of the global legal division of Thomson Reuters. West's official name is West, a Thomson Reuters business.

West was founded in 1872 in St. Paul, Minnesota by John B. West as West Publishing Company. West Publishing is most famous for establishing the National Reporter System, a system of regional reporter
Law report
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.The term reporter was...

s, each of which became well known for quickly and reliably reporting all state court appellate decisions within its region. West also reports decisions of the federal Courts of Appeals
United States courts of appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...

 in the Federal Reporter
Federal Reporter
The Federal Reporter is a case law reporter in the United States that is published by West Publishing. It begins with cases decided in 1880. It was preceded by Federal Cases...

and of the federal district courts in the Federal Supplement
Federal Supplement
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. Though West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the...

. Technically, all of West's reporters were originally unofficial reporters published without the express authorization or endorsement of the courts.

Due to their consistently high quality and regular publication schedule, West reporters have become the nationwide de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

standard used by all federal courts and most state courts, despite their technically unofficial nature. Indeed, a few smaller states discontinued their own official reporters and with West's cooperation, began inserting certificates in the volumes of the relevant West regional reporter certifying it as their official reporter. Thus, at present, American lawyers and judges regularly perform legal research
Legal research
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...

 in West reporters, and in turn cite primarily to West reporters in their written work product.

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. Today, West also publishes some treatise titles purchased from Shepard's (but not Shepard's Citations
Shepard's Citations
In legal research, Shepard's Citations is a citator, a list of all the authorities citing a particular case, statute, or other legal authority. The verb Shepardizing refers to the process of consulting Shepard's to see if a case has been overturned, reaffirmed, questioned, or cited by later cases...

). Through these acquisitions, Thomson has become one of the "big three" of legal publishers, along with LexisNexis
LexisNexis
LexisNexis Group is a company providing computer-assisted legal research services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information...

 and Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer N.V. is a global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory sectors...

. From 1997 to 2004, West was known as "West Group."

West products and services

  • AAJ Press
  • American Casebook Series
  • American Jurisprudence
    American Jurisprudence
    American Jurisprudence is an encyclopedia of United States law, published by West. It was originated by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, which was subsequently acquired by the Thomson Corporation. The series is now in its second edition, launched in 1962...

  • American Law Reports
    American Law Reports
    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 and remains an important tool for legal research....

  • Aspatore Books
  • Black Letter Series
  • Black's Law Dictionary
    Black's Law Dictionary
    Black's Law Dictionary is the most widely used law dictionary in the United States. It was founded by Henry Campbell Black. It is the reference of choice for definitions in legal briefs and court opinions and has been cited as a secondary legal authority in many U.S...

  • Calendars
  • Case Law
    Case law
    In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...

  • CLE Programs
  • Concepts and Insights Series
  • Contact Networks
  • Corpus Juris Secundum
    Corpus Juris Secundum
    Corpus Juris Secundum is an encyclopedia of U.S. law . Its full title is Corpus Juris Secundum: Complete Restatement Of The Entire American Law As Developed By All Reported Cases It contains an alphabetical arrangement of legal topics as developed by U.S...

  • Court Rules
  • Dictionaries/Desk Reference
  • Digests
  • Document Retrieval Services
  • Exam Pro Series
  • Federal Reporter
    Federal Reporter
    The Federal Reporter is a case law reporter in the United States that is published by West Publishing. It begins with cases decided in 1880. It was preceded by Federal Cases...

  • Federal Supplement
    Federal Supplement
    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. Though West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the...

  • Findlaw
    FindLaw
    FindLaw is a business of Thomson Reuters that provides online legal information and online marketing services for law firms. FindLaw was created by Stacy Stern, Martin Roscheisen and Tim Stanley in 1995, and was acquired by Thomson West in 2001....

  • Forms
  • Handbooks
  • Hornbook Series
  • Jury Instructions
    Jury instructions
    Jury instructions are the set of legal rules that jurors should follow when the jury is deciding a civil or criminal case. Jury instructions are given to the jury by the jury instructor, who usually reads them aloud to the jury...

  • Keycite and Citators
  • Law Firm Marketing Services
  • Law Review
    Law review
    A law review is a scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, normally published by an organization of students at a law school or through a bar association...

    s and Journals
  • Law School Casebooks
  • Law School Publications
  • Lawyering Skills
  • Legal Asst/Paralegal
  • Legal Encyclopedias
  • LiveNote
  • Nutshell Series
  • Practitioner Treatises
  • Public Records
  • Reporters
    National Reporter System
    West's National Reporter System is a set of law reports for both 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 ....

  • Restatements of the Law
  • Rutter Group
  • Statute
    Statute
    A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

    s
  • Supreme Court Reporter
  • Turning Point Series
  • Uniform Laws Annotated
  • University Casebook Series
  • University Textbook Series
  • West American Digest System
    West American Digest System
    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...

  • Westlaw
    Westlaw
    Westlaw is one of the primary online legal research services for lawyers and legal professionals in the United States and is a part of West. In addition, it provides proprietary database services...

  • WestlawNext
  • West Court Reporting Services
  • West LegalEdcenter
    West LegalEdCenter
    West LegalEdcenter is an online continuing legal education service that is marketed to lawyers and law professionals in the United States. Launched in 2001, it has 7500 programs and 17,000 hours of local, state and national CLE content in its online library...

  • Words And Phrases
  • U.S.C.A. (United States Code Annotated)
  • United States Code Congressional and Administrative News
    United States Code Congressional and Administrative News
    The United States Code Congressional and Administrative News is a West Group publication that collects selected Congressional and administrative materials for publication in a single resource. U.S.C.C.A.N. was first published in 1941 with the 1st Session of the 77th Congress and has been published...


  • External links

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