Westlaw controversies

Thomson Reuters sues ROSS over alleged use of Westlaw materials

Lawsuit filed

Thomson Reuters filed a lawsuit against ROSS, alleging that ROSS used its West Key Number System and West Headnotes without permission. According to the source article, the lawsuit was filed the previous day. The report describes the claim as centering on the unauthorized use of these Westlaw materials. No further details on the parties' arguments, the relief sought, or the outcome of the case are provided in the source.

Thomson Reuters sued ROSS, alleging that ROSS used its West Key Number System and West Headnotes without permission. The article reports the lawsuit as filed the previous day.

Criticism over immigration-enforcement data services

Legal scholars, human-rights advocates, and other critics urged Thomson Reuters to end its relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They argued that access to personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, and family connections could contribute to immigration enforcement and deportation operations.

Personal-information database controversy

Westlaw drew criticism after public discussion of identity theft and data-broker practices highlighted the availability of sensitive personal information through its databases. Reported information included Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, prior addresses, and related background data. Westlaw responded by restricting full Social Security number access for most customers who had previously been able to retrieve it.

Disputes over pagination and editorial corrections

West pursued copyright-related litigation concerning LexisNexis's use of star pagination and West's text corrections in judicial opinions. The dispute produced a licensing arrangement, while later litigation involving HyperLaw addressed the scope of copyright claims over corrections and internal pagination.