TAP SAYS WEST PUBLISHING IS SUBJECT OF DEPT 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 for the case can be reached 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 OCT 19th ON NON-PROPRIETARY CITATION SYSTEM 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) --- TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP). TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the management of government property, including information systems and data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal information policy. tap-info is archived at ftp.cpsr.org; gopher.cpsr.org and wais.cpsr.org Subscription requests to tap-info to listproc@tap.org with the message: subscribe tap-info your name --- Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. 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