LexisNexis Group provides computer-assisted legal research services.^[2][3] During the 1970s, LexisNexis pioneered the electronic accessibility of legal and journalistic documents.^[4] In 2006, the company had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information.^[5]

History[link]

LexisNexis office in Markham

Currently a division of Reed Elsevier,^[6] LexisNexis was first a product of the Mead Data Central company.^[3][5]

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.^[7]

LexisNexis' world headquarters is located in Dayton, Ohio, United States.^[1][8]

Trademark lawsuit[link]

When Toyota 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.^[9][10] Mead lost on appeal in 1989 when the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit held that there was little chance of consumer confusion.^[11] Today, the two companies have an amicable business relationship, and in 2002 implemented a joint promotion called "Win a Lexus on Lexis!"

Mergers and acquisitions[link]

In 2000, LexisNexis purchased RiskWise, a St. Cloud, Minnesota company.^[12] In 2002 it acquired a Canadian research database company, Quicklaw. In 2004, Reed Elsevier Group, parent company of LexisNexis, purchased Seisint, Inc, of Boca Raton, Florida.^[13] Seisint housed and operated Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX).

Seisint information breach[link]

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,^[14] but that number greatly increased to over 310,000.^[15] 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[link]

LexisNexis services are delivered via two websites that require separate paid subscriptions.^[16]

According to a company news release, LexisNexis hosts over 30 terabytes 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.^[17]

Lexis.com[link]

The Lexis database contains current United States 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.^[18]

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 current^[update] 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 last ten years^[update] as well as all United States Supreme Court cases.

Nexis.com[link]

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[link]

In the UK and Australia LexisNexis publishes magazines and journals, both in hard copy and online. Titles include Taxation Magazine and Lawyers Weekly.

Software[link]

Time Matters is a LexisNexis-branded software offering.

Awards, recognition and criticism[link]

LGBT equality[link]

In 2010 and 2011 the Human Rights Campaign recognized LexisNexis as a company that treats its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees well.^[19]

Employee training[link]

Training magazine inducted LexisNexis into its "Training Top 125" list between 2007 and 2010. In 2008 the company was 26th on the list, rising 6 places from the previous year, but in 2009 it was 71st place and by 2010 was 105th.^[20]

Criticism[link]

In 2009 employee reviews surveyed by glassdoor.com led to LexisNexis being ranked "11th worst place to work in America".^[21]

See also[link]

• CanLII
• Casemap
• LexisNexis Butterworths
• LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell
• Westlaw
• Wexis

References and footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• LexisNexis official Web site
• New York Times, "Security Breach at LexisNexis Now Appears Larger," April 13, 2005
• Wired News interview with LexisNexis hackers, May 25, 2005
• Corporate Affiliations
• LexisNexis Russia

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