The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) is pleased to announce the acquisition of Lexum Informatique Juridique Inc. (Lexum), a Canadian company that specializes in technology solutions for the publication and management of legal information online. Lexum has been CanLII’s strategic technology partner since CanLII’s inception.
CanLII is a non-profit organization launched in 2001 by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada on behalf of its 14 member law societies to provide efficient and open online access to a comprehensive collection of current judicial decisions and legislative documents. CanLII supports members of the legal profession in the performance of their duties while providing the public with permanent open access to laws and legal cases from all Canadian jurisdictions.
Lexum is a software company specializing in the online management and publication of legal information. It provides solutions and services to producers and users of legal information, as well as other organizations that prepare, manage and publish large collections of documents. Lexum began operating in 1993 by collaborating with the Supreme Court of Canada to publish court decisions on the internet. Since then, Lexum has provided a wide range of consulting, development, hosting and support services for many Canadian legal institutions.
“By acquiring Lexum, CanLII will strengthen its leadership position as a legal information provider, and will generate new opportunities to enhance the services that make Canadian legal information accessible to anyone on the Internet” says CanLII President Xavier Beauchamp-Tremblay.
“I believe that technology and online legal information will play an increasingly critical role in resolving the issue of access to legal services, and in interactions among jurists, citizens, courts, administrative tribunals and governments”.
Lexum President Daniel Poulin says that coming 25 years after Lexum was founded, the acquisition by CanLII marks a new stage in the development of the company. “This transaction brings together two organizations that have led major innovation for access to Canadian legal information. CanLII
understands Lexum’s corporate DNA and its services, and will provide even more opportunities for innovation.”
CanLII also acquires Lexum’s “Qweri”, “Decisia” and “Lexbox” software solutions that provide numerous organizations and end-users with document management and publishing capabilities for legal decisions, statutes, regulations, secondary materials and other documents.
Federation President Sheila MacPherson describes CanLII as a shining example of how national collaboration among Canada’s law societies can work. “CanLII has grown from a pilot project to become the indispensable go-to legal research tool for Canada’s legal profession. Open public access to legal
information is also essential to helping to address the access to justice needs of ordinary Canadians.”
“The acquisition of Lexum marks an important milestone in the history of CanLII” President MacPherson adds, “positioning both to take on future challenges in a competitive legal information marketplace. We are very excited to support this key step in CanLII’s long-term strategy.”
The Federation of Law Societies of Canada is the national coordinating body of Canada’s 14 provincial
and territorial law societies that govern Canada’s 117,000 lawyers, Quebec’s 4,500 notaries and Ontario’s
8,000 licensed paralegals in the public interest.
Based in Montreal, Lexum (https://lexum.com) is a software company that designs and operates unique
systems for the online delivery of information products. Lexum’s clients include private and public entities
around the globe.
CanLII’s legal research service is available at http://www.canlii.org, or through CanLII Connects at http://canliiconnects.org, as well through the web site of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada http://www.flsc.ca.