LexisNexis Discontinues West Headnote Coverage in Shepard's Citations

LexisNexis has announced that, as of September 1, 2006, it no longer provides coverage of West headnotes for most case law in Shepard's Citations. See "New Enhancements" section of the current LexisNexis Info Pro for Legal Information Professionals. LexisNexis also began removing "historic headnote analysis" from Shepard's Citations on September 1, 2006. The company cites the steady decline of print subscriptions to Shepard's and states that "we can no longer justify the resources required to keep up the labor-intensive process of performing analysis for headnotes that we do not have online."

This announcement comes one year after a September 2005 LexisNexis news release stating that "LexisNexis will continue to provide headnote analysis for West's reporters. Furthermore, no existing headnote analysis has been removed from any Shepard's product." This news release had been posted in response to questions and concerns raised at the time about the rumored possible elimination of West headnote coverage in Shepard's Citations.