LexisNexis
Encyclopedia
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. LexisNexis world headquarters is located in Dayton, Ohio
, United States.
, LexisNexis was first a product of the Mead Data Central company.
The Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier
has owned LexisNexis and its predecessor company since 1994. At its inception in 1970, the database was named LEXIS by Mead Data Central (MDC), a subsidiary of the Mead Corporation. It was a continuation of an experiment organized by the Ohio State Bar in 1967. On April 2, 1973, LEXIS launched publicly, offering full-text searching of all Ohio and New York cases. In 1980, LEXIS completed its hand-keyed electronic archive of all U.S. federal and state cases. The NEXIS service, added that same year, gave journalists a searchable database of news articles. (Notice the capital letters in the name; it was then standard to capitalize the names of online services.)
launched the Lexus
line of luxury vehicles in 1987, Mead Data Central sued for trademark infringement
on the grounds that consumers of upscale products (such as lawyers) would confuse "Lexus" with "Lexis". A market research survey asked consumers to identify the spoken word "Lexis". Survey results showed that a nominal number of people thought of the computerized legal search system; a similarly small number thought of Toyota's luxury car division. A judge ruled against Toyota, and the company appealed the decision. Mead lost on appeal in 1989 when the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit
held that there was little chance of consumer confusion. Today, the two companies have an amicable business relationship, and in 2002 implemented a joint promotion called "Win a Lexus on Lexis!"
company. In 2002 it acquired a Canadian research database company, Quicklaw
. Two years later it bought Seisint, Inc, of Boca Raton, Florida
. Seisint housed and operated Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange
(MATRIX).
According to a company news release, LexisNexis hosts over 30 terabyte
s of content on its 11 mainframes (supported by over 300 midrange UNIX servers and nearly 1,000 Windows NT servers) at its main datacenter in Miamisburg, Ohio
.
statutes and laws and a large volume of published case opinions dating from the 1770s to the present, as well as publicly available unpublished
case opinions from 1980 on. In 2000, Lexis began building a library of briefs and motions.
Lexis also has libraries of statutes, case judgments and opinions for jurisdictions such as France
, Australia
, Canada
, Hong Kong
, South Africa
and the United Kingdom
as well as databases of law review and legal journal articles for countries for which materials are available.
As part of its publishing deal with the California court system, Lexis has a stripped-down free site, available from the California Courts web site, for the public to search California opinions. It also has a stripped-down free site, LexisOne, that has case law available for state and federal jurisdictions for the as well as all United States Supreme Court
cases.
and Lawyers Weekly
recognized LexisNexis as a company that treats its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees well.
Computer-assisted legal research
Computer-assisted legal research 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...
services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information. LexisNexis world headquarters is located in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, United States.
History
Currently a division of Reed ElsevierReed Elsevier
Reed Elsevier is a publisher and information provider operating in the science, medical, legal, risk and business sectors. It is listed on several of the world's major stock exchanges. It is a FTSE 100 and FT500 Global company...
, LexisNexis was first a product of the Mead Data Central company.
The Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier
Reed Elsevier
Reed Elsevier is a publisher and information provider operating in the science, medical, legal, risk and business sectors. It is listed on several of the world's major stock exchanges. It is a FTSE 100 and FT500 Global company...
has owned LexisNexis and its predecessor company since 1994. At its inception in 1970, the database was named LEXIS by Mead Data Central (MDC), a subsidiary of the Mead Corporation. It was a continuation of an experiment organized by the Ohio State Bar in 1967. On April 2, 1973, LEXIS launched publicly, offering full-text searching of all Ohio and New York cases. In 1980, LEXIS completed its hand-keyed electronic archive of all U.S. federal and state cases. The NEXIS service, added that same year, gave journalists a searchable database of news articles. (Notice the capital letters in the name; it was then standard to capitalize the names of online services.)
Trademark lawsuit
When ToyotaToyota Motor Corporation
, , , commonly known simply as Toyota and abbreviated as TMC, is a multinational automaker headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. In 2010, Toyota Motor Corporation employed 317,734 people worldwide, and was the world's largest automobile manufacturer by production.The company was founded by...
launched the Lexus
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, Lexus is now sold globally and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. The Lexus marque is marketed in over 70 countries and territories worldwide, and has...
line of luxury vehicles in 1987, Mead Data Central sued for trademark infringement
Trademark infringement
Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees...
on the grounds that consumers of upscale products (such as lawyers) would confuse "Lexus" with "Lexis". A market research survey asked consumers to identify the spoken word "Lexis". Survey results showed that a nominal number of people thought of the computerized legal search system; a similarly small number thought of Toyota's luxury car division. A judge ruled against Toyota, and the company appealed the decision. Mead lost on appeal in 1989 when the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...
held that there was little chance of consumer confusion. Today, the two companies have an amicable business relationship, and in 2002 implemented a joint promotion called "Win a Lexus on Lexis!"
M&A
In 2000, LexisNexis purchased RiskWise, a St. Cloud, MinnesotaSt. Cloud, Minnesota
St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 65,842 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stearns County...
company. In 2002 it acquired a Canadian research database company, Quicklaw
Quicklaw
LexisNexis Quicklaw is a Canadian electronic legal research database that provides court decisions from all levels, news reports, provincial and federal statutes, journals, and other legal commentary...
. Two years later it bought Seisint, Inc, of Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...
. Seisint housed and operated Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange
Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange
The Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange Program, also known by the acronym MATRIX, was a federally funded data mining system originally developed for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement described as a tool to identify terrorist subjects....
(MATRIX).
Seisint information breach
On March 9, 2005 LexisNexis announced the possible theft of personal information of some Seisint users. It was originally estimated that 32,000 users were affected, but that number greatly increased to over 310,000. Affected persons will be provided with free fraud insurance and credit bureau reports for a year. However, no reports of identity theft or fraud were discovered to have stemmed from the security breach.Content offerings
LexisNexis services are delivered via two websites that require separate paid subscriptions.According to a company news release, LexisNexis hosts over 30 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
s of content on its 11 mainframes (supported by over 300 midrange UNIX servers and nearly 1,000 Windows NT servers) at its main datacenter in Miamisburg, Ohio
Miamisburg, Ohio
Miamisburg is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,181 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area...
.
Lexis.com
The Lexis database contains current United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
statutes and laws and a large volume of published case opinions dating from the 1770s to the present, as well as publicly available unpublished
Non-publication
Non-publication of opinions, or Unpublished opinions, are those decisions of courts that are not available for citation as precedent because the judges making the opinion deem the case as having less precedential value....
case opinions from 1980 on. In 2000, Lexis began building a library of briefs and motions.
Lexis also has libraries of statutes, case judgments and opinions for jurisdictions such as France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as well as databases of law review and legal journal articles for countries for which materials are available.
As part of its publishing deal with the California court system, Lexis has a stripped-down free site, available from the California Courts web site, for the public to search California opinions. It also has a stripped-down free site, LexisOne, that has case law available for state and federal jurisdictions for the as well as all United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
cases.
Nexis.com
Nexis.com makes available content from more than 20,000 global news sources, company & industry intelligence providers, biographical and reference sources, intellectual property records, public records, legislative and regulatory filings and legal materials. Nexis offers a global, multi-lingual content collection with an archive dating to the 1970s for some sources.Publishing
In the UK and Australia LexisNexis publishes magazines and journals, both in hard copy and online. Titles include Taxation MagazineTaxation Magazine
Taxation is an English language weekly magazine for professional UK tax advisers. It is owned by LexisNexis, part of Reed Elsevier. The magazine is edited in the LexisNexis Sutton office. The first issue was published on 1 October 1927 and it has been in continuous publication ever since...
and Lawyers Weekly
Awards and recognition
LexisNexis has been praised for supporting LGBT rights as well as for being a company that provides its employees with on-the-job training.LGBT equality
In both 2010 and 2011 Human Rights CampaignHuman Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
recognized LexisNexis as a company that treats its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees well.