As some of you know, before returning to being a law librarian in 1997, I
worked in legal publishing for 15 years. The last two of those years was at
Michie in Charlottesville, having been merged into Michie from Butterworth
when Lexis was acquired by Reed Elsevier. I managed several state codes
there, New Mexico was NOT one of them. However, I know what must have
happened in NM and will share it with you.
The Code Commissioner (Gary O'Dowd, his title might be legislative counsel,
it doesn't matter what he's called, that's what he does) must have put the
statutes out for bid recently. The contracts usually run for 3, 4, 5, or
some number of years. Michie had the contract for many, many years. Former
Michie employees, several years removed from working for Michie, and hired
as consultants, helped American Legal Publishers (ALP) put together a bid on
behalf of ALP in Cincinnati. ALP has been a municipal code publisher,
historically.
I don't know the numbers but knowing how the business works, the new and
obviously lower bid, I predict, will save the state a significant amount of
money over the life of the contract. Probably lawyers in the state as well.
NM Code subscribers outside New Mexico may wind up paying more, since the NM
Code Commissioner probably doesn't care what the company with the contract
charges to out-of-state subscribers. At least that was the situation when
I, working for Butterworth, took the contract for Alaska away from Michie.
The new contract saved Alaska and its lawyers substantial sums of money over
each two year period, but out of state subscribers paid more. Ironically of
course I later managed the Alaska code, at the lower prices, while working
at Michie, since the turnover to Butterworth didn't take place before we got
merged into Michie.
This is probably far more than anyone wanted to know! One other thing,
however. I have not heard but I will not be surprised to see Michie (now
called Lexis Publishing, of course, but it's really Reed Elsevier) continue
to publish their unofficial version of the NMSA. When at Michie and we lost
the Alabama code to then LCP (before Thomson bought West), Michie stayed in
the market. I managed that code before and after we lost it. It was ugly.
The process I mean.
Did I say yet that I'm glad I'm not still in that business?
Mike Beaird
UALR
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu]On
Behalf Of Kent Olson
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 6:55 PM
To: Law-Lib (E-mail)
Subject: Who will be publishing New Mexico statutes?
We've received a letter from American Legal Publishing Corporation, saying
that it has taken over as the new official publisher of the New Mexico
Statutes Annotated as of September 1, 2003. American Legal says it will
continue to publish NMSA in its present format, i.e. those delightful
oversized orange binders with separate pamphlets and supplements for each
chapter.
American Legal is kindly providing subscribers notice and an option to
cancel, but it makes no mention of any competing publication (not that it
should). I don't find any new editions mentioned in OCLC, RLG,
west.thomson.com, or lexisnexis.com. If you know about a new annotated New
Mexico publication in the works, please tell the list. Thanks.
Kent Olson
UVA Law Library
kolson@virginia.edu
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