Good news for legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell, which recently picked up an award handed out in the US for the success of Archbold Magistrates' Courts Criminal Practice (presumably not a big seller over there, however). The excellence award was handed out in recognition of the contribution the book has made to the company's revenue growth and market share since it was launched last October, exceeding its first year's sales targets. The press release explains that project leader Julie Clarke got to travel to Washington DC, where 'she was handed the crystal engraved trophy by Brian Hall, CEO of Thomson Legal and Regulatory and Robert Daleo, CFO of Thomson Corporation'. Now the only blot on this attractive landscape is that Thomson - as the release does, in fairness, note - is Sweet's international parent company and the awards celebrate achievement in Thomson's international legal and regulatory division. This does rather devalue the whole thing (indeed, was it really worth releasing to the press? Next time it'll be employee of the month), although the PR person who called up about this important news assures us that Thomson is a very big company. So that's all right, then. Obiter can think of a well-known legal publication that once described itself as 'award-winning' before a rival pulled it up at the Advertising Standards Authority because the award was handed out by its own publishing house. The ASA backed the complaint, but we're sure Sweets would not do such a thing.