Wexis

Encyclopedia : W : WE : WEX : Wexis

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Neither of these companies is independent—they are parts of much larger conglomerates which dominate the entire information services sector. West is owned by The Thomson Corporation, while LexisNexis is a division of Reed Elsevier.

Notably, these companies dispute the allegation that they are a duopoly; LexisNexis actually sued one company which used the terms "Wexis" and "duopoly" in its marketing literature.Anonymous, "LexisNexis wins first phase of legal battle with competitor," Business First-Columbus, 29 June 2001, A13.

The Federal Trade Commission keeps a cautious eye on both companies to ensure neither violates antitrust law. For example, both of them are usually required to license the pagination in their printed reporters to the other's online database. Otherwise, lawyers in jurisdictions that require citations to all official and unofficial reporters would have to subscribe to both online services to get all the necessary page numbers for citations in their briefs.

Both companies are notorious for their aggressive marketing programs in American law schools. Law students can print documents for free that are obtained through their respective services. Both companies also have programs through which students can earn points (based on their number of searches) that can be redeemed for free gifts.Maggie Rauch, "Court of appeal: legal information providers vie for student loyalty," Incentive 179, no. 3 (March 2005): 13.

As of 2005, Wolters Kluwer is the largest company trying to establish a beachhead against the "Wexis" duopoly; it has taken over offline legal publishers like Aspen Publishing and online legal services like Loislaw. However, Wolters has not yet created a single brand for its online and offline legal offerings, and most importantly, it lacks a cross-referencing feature that can directly compete against Westlaw's KeyCite or Shepard's Citators from LexisNexis.

Wexis

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