In September of 2006, Thomson West acquired the LiveNote company.

Peter Warwick, president and chief executive officer of West, said LiveNote strengthens West's leadership position and accelerates the company's growth trajectory in the litigation market. "Our legal research tools are essential to the litigator's practice, and we built on this foundation to create the success of Westlaw Litigator, the first workflow solution for attorneys that couples case law, analytical content and workflow tools. LiveNote brings new power and functionality to our litigation solutions, so now we can provide our customers seamless access to all of the specific facts of the case, including case law, briefs, depositions and court testimony," said Warwick.

The legal market's first integrated litigation platform
LiveNote and Westlaw for Litigators are the critical building blocks in West's strategy to launch a truly integrated litigation platform. This platform will provide the most comprehensive set of content, tools and functionality, and is the only solution for litigators that combines legal content, case-specific facts and litigation workflow applications. LiveNote adds powerful new functionality to this platform: attorneys can now view, search and annotate live transcripts and video in real time, while sharing strategic insights and Westlaw research with their remote case team over the Internet. LiveNote also lets attorneys link archived deposition and courtroom testimony with related exhibits, creating a virtual binder of the facts of the case.

Additionally, LiveNote's RealLegal brand of court reporting tools ensures that the testimony received in LiveNote is encrypted and certified, for secure, seamless delivery from the reporter to the litigator. LiveNote is the only provider of Engate Compliant™ Realtime technology. Warwick said West and LiveNote share a commitment to providing powerful technologies, applications and mission-critical content, giving customers the tools they need to make better decisions faster. "We understand the complexity of the litigator's practice, and the critical need they have for real-time information and tools. And LiveNote's ease of use and superior functionality have made it the single most widely used litigation software among the Am Law 200. Together, we offer a level of expertise, inventiveness, scale and understanding of litigators' needs that is unmatched in our market," said Warwick.

"We made the decision to align with the clear leader in the litigation market," said Robberts. "Our mutual focus will be on creating the tools that can help support the litigator at every point in the litigation process – bringing together the facts in the case with West's vast resources in an interface that litigators know and trust."

In 2005, LiveNote acquired RealLegal, the market-leader in transcript technology for the court reporting industry. As a unit, the company is simplifying the transfer of draft and final transcripts from the reporter, to the attorney, and to online storage repositories.

LiveNote Technologies consolidated its development group in Melbourne (Australia) in 2000.

In 1998 LiveNote Technologies and LiveNote, Inc. were separated from the Smith Bernal Group. Smith Bernal was sold to LegalLink Corporation of Boston Massachusetts.

In 1994 LiveNote, Inc. was formed in America.

In 1993 LiveNote won the coveted Outstanding Technology prize awarded by the Society for Computers and Law in Britain. US lawyers working in the United Kingdom saw the benefits of LiveNote and began to demand its use in the USA.

In 1991 LiveNote Technologies was launched in the UK. The aim of this company was to develop and market the LiveNote software.

In 1985 Graham Smith founded the Smith Bernal Group of companies. Smith Bernal originally provided verbatim transcription services for trials, hearings, depositions and inquiries. During the late 80s Smith Bernal began to see the need for transcription management software that would allow a litigator to access, annotate, and search transcripts.

Employment
Find out more about open positions by visiting the online Careers page of our parent company, The Thomson Corporation.