On Monday, March 10, oral argument was held in Oasis v. West in the
8th Circuit. A report of the argument prepared by Russ Armstrong,
Geronimo Development Corp., a CD-ROM publisher of Virginia Law and
member of the American Association of Legal Publishers, has been
posted on HyperLaw's WEB site.
The Oasis case was filed against West concerning citations in Florida
Cases initially in Florida in 1995, a year after the Matthew Bender
and HyperLaw action filed in New York against West [the Oasis
complaint includes an exhibit with HyperLaw's handwritten
annotations.] West moved to transfer the case to Minnesota in order
to put the case in its home court. Then, while West was claiming in
the New York action that there was not justiciability, it stipulated
to justiciability in Minnesota (sic!!!), and won the first round at
the District Court level. In the meantime, Matthew Bender and
HyperLaw won the first round in New York before Judge Martin in
November and Judge Friedman in the Tunney Act proceeding in
Washington had caustic things to say about the West claims -- and the
8th circuit was aware of these views critical of West v. Mead and the
Oasis District Court opinion.
But, oops to West again -- it seems according to Armstrong's report
that the 8th Circuit was not at all that friendly to West's position
so suddenly it looks somewhat like maybe perhaps there will not be a
split in the circuits and the case will never get to the Supreme
Court which means it will not be finally ajudicated as per the Judge
Freidman's ruling.
In the meantime, Armstrong referred to a Westie muttering about
copyists -- it is pretty easy to guess who the Westie was -- odd --
West has been the ultimate court sponsored copyist for years, and the
"new West" really ramps this even higher. New West Group now has
merged into it Lawyers Cooperative Publishing and guess who purchased
and published a database of Texas cases copied from West's South
Western Reporter (purchased form Curtiss Hill Publishing Company)? --
none other than Lawyers Cooperative. Talk about the pot calling the
kettle black. More irony: HyperLaw provides 5th Circuit opinions to
LCP that are included on LCP's Texas CD-ROM. Even more irony: West
threats against Matthew Bender in 1993, which provided a basis for
justiciability, concerned this very same databases copied by Curtiss
Hill from the South Western Reporter which Matthew Bender planned to
place on its own CD-ROM!!!
More to the point, the issue of the ability to copy West court
opinions (exclusive of headnotes, syllabi, synopsis) was not
presented by Oasis nor Matthew Bender in its initial action, but was
by HyperLaw. Moreover, DOJ punted in the license agreement on
star-pagination, giving as some have said, a license to star-paginate
blank pages. A trial on HyperLaw's claim was held on January 27-28
in the SDNY where West tried to defend these weak claims. A report
by Conn. Law Tribune reporter is on the HyperLaw WEB site. Final
briefs will be completed in six weeks or so.
ADS
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:: Alan D. Sugarman Federal Appeals on Disc tm CD-ROM ::
:: President Opinions of US Courts of Appeals ::
:: 1993 to Date - All Circuits ::
:: HyperLaw, Inc. Registered Trademark ::
:: P.O. Box 1176 DO NOT SHORT CIRCUIT YOUR CLIENTS ::
:: New York, NY 10023 ::
:: sugarman@hyperlaw.com 212-787-2812 212-496-4138(fax) ::
:: ::
:: http://www.hyperlaw.com ::
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:31 PST