The Rutter Group, founded by William Rutter, is a business of
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre.
Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
that publishes materials for lawyers and judges in the United States, with a particular focus on California. The Rutter Group is well known for its ''Rutter Group Practice Guides'', which are written and edited by famous lawyers and judges. Courts have cited these treatises in almost 8,000 legal opinions, and they have been called the 'bible' for litigators.
Many of the cases that the treatises cite point back directly to the Rutter text as the original source of the legal principle applied. When this occurs, the Rutter treatises include the parenthetical "citing text" when listing the cases.
Because the publications are non-binding, courts may sometimes expressly decline to follow them. However, both California and federal courts have repeatedly identified Rutter treatises as "well-respected" interpretations of the law, which may be cited as "redoubtable" authority. The California Court of Appeal has treated the existence of conflicting Rutter Group authority as strong evidence that a legal question was unsettled and therefore not an appropriate basis for sanctioning an attorney.
The Rutter Group also sponsors panel discussions regarding recent changes in the law, and the judges it hires to participate in these events must disclose the compensation they receive because it could potentially be a conflict of interests.
[California Fair Political Practices Commission - March 13, 1999 Letter to the Honorable Richard M. Sims III "Re: Your Request for Advice," 1992 WL 778701]
Rutter treatises
The Rutter Group now publishes more than twenty-five treatises, which are available both in print and through
Westlaw
Westlaw is an online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal statute ...
. They are considered one of the primary reasons that many attorneys subscribe to Westlaw instead of its competitor,
Lexis
Lexis may refer to:
* Lexis (linguistics), the total bank of words and phrases of a particular language, the artifact of which is known as a lexicon
*Lexis (Aristotle), a complete group of words in a language
*LexisNexis, part of the LexisNexis onl ...
.
Subjects include:
*Administrative law
*Alternative dispute resolution
*Bankruptcy
*Civil appeals and writs
*Civil procedure before trial
*Civil trials and evidence
*Corporations
*Employment litigation
*Enforcing judgments and debts
*Family law
*Federal civil procedure before trial
*Federal civil trials and evidence
*Federal employment litigation
*Federal Ninth Circuit civil appellate practice
*Insurance litigation
*Landlord–tenant
*Personal injury
*Privacy law
*Probate
*Professional responsibility
*Real property transactions
References
External links
Rutter Group Home Page
{{Authority control
West (publisher)
Thomson Reuters
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