Viewing Douglas A. Hedin: "West Publishing Company Edits the Opinions of the Minnesota Supreme Court" (2013).

Douglas A. Hedin: "West Publishing Company Edits the Opinions of the Minnesota Supreme Court" (2013).

West Publishing Company began publishing the regional Northwestern Reporter in 1879. Each volume contained the decisions of the Supreme Courts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska and Dakota. Beginning with Volume 41, appearing in 1889, West reformatted the courts' decisions by eliminating most indentations of paragraphs that were in the originals. In other words, it compressed the opinions into a few long, ungainly paragraphs that stretched over columns and pages.

This short article focuses on how West compressed and edited the decisions of the Minnesota Supreme Court to fit the Northwestern Reporter.

The subject is obscure and technical, and will interest only students of nineteenth century law book publishing, a few law librarians and, perhaps, future historians of the company.

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