DOJ Antitrust Investigation of West Publishing

[James Love <love@tap.org>]

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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - Juris, Legal Information
September 29, 1994

     WEST PUBLISHING IS SUBJECT OF DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
     ANTITRUST PROBE

-    Department of Justice (DOJ) begins antitrust investigation
     of West Publishing.

-    DOJ investigators ask to meet with several publishers to
     gather information about West business practices.

-    Publishers or companies who have information about
     anticompetitive problems in markets for legal information
     may provide information to the Department of Justice.

-    Investigation coincides with September 2, 1994 announcement
     that Attorney General Janet Reno will explore ways to
     improve public access to legal information, including
     development of united non-proprietary system of citation and
     public domain database of federal and state judicial
     opinions.

-    Publishers will meet in Washington, DC on October 19 to
     discuss the adoption of non-proprietary vendor neutral
     system of citation.


DOJ BEGINS ANTITRUST INVESTIGATION

     Six small publishers have told TAP that they were
interviewed by investigators from the Department of Justice (DOJ)
Antitrust Division over the past two weeks.  The interviews were
described as preliminary, but extensive, lasting several hours
and involving several DOJ investigators.  The DOJ investigation
is apparently focusing on a number of allegations of
anticompetitive practices in the market for legal information,
including the controversial West Publishing assertion that it
"owns" the page numbers to published judicial opinions.  The page
numbers of published opinions are a crucial element of the
citation system used by judges to cite case law.

     Companies or individuals who have information about problems
in markets for legal information may provide information to the
Department of Justice.  Information that would be particularly
useful concerns the impact of the West control over the citation
system on the ability of firms to offer new products and
services, including value added products which are not
commercially viable without access to an acceptable citation
system.  Also useful would be information about exclusive
arrangements or preferential treatment between West and state and
federal courts, or anticompetitive business practices.

Letters should be addressed to:

     Anne Bingaman
     Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust
     Department of Justice
     Washington, DC 20530

Investigators working on the case can be reached by telephone at:
202/514-8346.

WEST LOBBIES AGAINST RENO ON PUBLIC DOMAIN LEGAL INFORMATION

     The DOJ antitrust investigation appears to have began
shortly after a September 2, 1994 announcement by Attorney
General Janet Reno stating that DOJ will explore ways to improve
public access to legal information, including the development of
united non-proprietary system of citation and public domain
database of federal and state judicial opinions.

     West Publishing is aggressively attacking the September 2
DOJ announcement.  On September 14, 1994, Dwight Opperman (v.
612/687-5700), the Chairman of West Publishing, sent a "Dear
Fellow West Publishing Employee/Retiree" letter to a reported
6,000 persons, asking them to write letters to DOJ opposing the
September 2, 1994 statement by Attorney General Janet Reno.  The
West letter writing campaign was the subject of several news
stories in Minnesota newspapers.

     West has also been heavily lobbying Congress, calling in all
of its chits, and asking members to write Reno in opposition to a
public domain system of citation.  One Senate staff member said
that West lobbyists were now saying that a public domain citation
system would destroy West, and allow the Japanese an opportunity
to take over the legal publishing market.  While arguments of
this type are seen as a sign of desperation, West is still
perceived to be a very influential actor, due largely to West
President Vance Opperman's role as a big money fundraiser for
members of Congress and the Clinton Administration.  For more
information about the West lobbying campaign, contact Vance
Opperman (v. 612/687-5700, vopperman@research.westlaw.com) 

     The Minnesota congressional delegation has been particularly
active in its support of West, lead by republican House member
Jim Ramstad.  In a September 12, 1994 speech on the floor of the
House (CR,  H9083-4) Rep. Ramstad made the following comments:

     Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue of
     grave concern to one of the largest employers in my
     district.  I refer to the press release issued by the
     Department of Justice on September 2, 1994, with the
     headline, "Justice Dept. Seeks Public Access to Court
     Rulings."  In effect, the Justice Department is getting
     ready to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to put
     America's private sector legal information industry out
     of business--and put thousands of American taxpayers
     who work in that industry out of jobs. . . .

     First, the Department intends to create and impose an
     additional new, so called public citation system for
     court cases. . .

     Second, the Department Intends to duplicate, at public
     expense, legal databases already easily available from the
     private sector--databases containing millions of court
     cases. . . .

     West Publishing is an American Success story . . . 

     I [suspect that nobody] has been approached with complaints
     about the unavailability of online legal information--or the
     inadequacy of our citation system. . .

     It raises a very real specter of Government censorship over
     legal information by eventually making the Department of
     Justice and the political appointees who operate there the
     sole source of legal information in America.

REALITY CHECK FOR JIM RAMSTAD

-    West charges about $240 per hour for access to WESTLAW,
     which is far more than most citizens can afford.

-    The U.S. government spends tens of millions of dollars per
     year on WESTLAW and LEXIS and millions more to purchase West
     print publicans.  The cost of these publications would drop
     dramatically with a public domain system of citation and new
     competition, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

-    There is widespread industry support for public domain
     citation system, including such firms as Mead Data Central,
     LEXIS/Counsel Connect, Lawyers Coop, Timeline Publishing,
     Tax Analysts, Hyperlaw, Select University Technologies and
     dozens of other firms.  Only West Publishing actively
     supports the West monopoly on federal judicial citations.

-    Most of the value added publishers strongly support a
     central government repository of federal judicial decisions. 
     At present, only two firms, West and Mead (LEXIS) own copies
     of the database of historical opinions.  West claims its
     minor grammatical corrections and selection criteria give it
     a copyright over its body of published historical judicial
     opinions, forcing the public to deal with a monopoly to
     obtain public records.


PUBLISHERS TO MEET OCTOBER 19, 1994 ON NON-PROPRIETARY SYSTEM OF
CITATION

     On October 19, 1994, more than one dozen publishers will
meet in Washington, DC to discuss the adoption of a non-
proprietary vendor neutral system of citation for judicial
opinions.  Persons interested in learning more about this effort
can contact James Love (wk 202/387-8030; hm 610/658-0880; 
jamie@tap.org) or Michael Ward (v. 202/387-8030; mike@tap.org)

    jamie

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