LexisNexis Fails to Make the Leap

March 2, 2012

Leap Day is a bit odd for everyone. It just seems strange to have the 29^th added to February every four years. However, for the most part, everyone assumes that Leap Day will cause no major problems. That was not the case for some law librarians who reported their findings in, “Lexis Litigation Lists Lag on LeapDay.”

“While trying to run a Litigant Strategic Profile from LexisNexis’ CourtLink system, we kept noticing that the reports simply wouldn’t run. We contacted Lexis in the morning to see what the issue was and they told us that they would investigate the issue and return our call as soon as they figured out what was causing it, or when they got it corrected. Morning turned to afternoon, and finally we heard back from them with a surprising answer. Turns out that the Litigant Strategic Profiles couldn’t understand February 29th, and therefore the reports simply wouldn’t run. The solution was to not run the reports until March 1st, when the system would be back to normal.”

The author rightly points out that his $2 alarm clock recognizes Leap Day, but a very expensive subscription database cannot. Needless to say, anyone needing Litigant Strategic Profiles on February 29, 2012, would not be satisfied to wait until the next day to continue their projects. The news is a poor reflection on LexisNexis. While the company later denied the Leap Day connection, and maintains it was a non-related “systems issue,” this is a good reminder of how dependent we are as professionals upon information storage and retrieval systems.

Glitches are a reality, bugs a way of life, but when our systems shut down, we shut down. This is all the more reason to invest in trusted, vetted information solutions and have contingency and redundancy plans for when issues arise. Even then, problems will occur, but stay calm and trust those old-fashioned solutions: patience and common sense.

Emily Rae Aldridge, March 2, 2012

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.