Tips on Technology

The Paperless Chase

by Richard K. Herrmann, Esquire

It is interesting how culturally we are still bound to our notions of paper. For the last nine years I have been talking about the paperless office. During that time, we have seen the introduction of email. When you step back and analyze it, the vast majority of our office communications are now electronic. It is true that the quality has taken an unfortunate turn in a number of respects, including writing style, poor form, poorer spelling (even with spell check) and loss of letterhead. However, most will agree that convenience and efficiency trump style. It is simply a shame that such a compromise must be made. But I digress – back to the notions of paper.

Notwithstanding this electronic leap in communications, the email programs we use still keep the paper office image alive. Email is kept in electronic folders, and the folders are stored in electronic file cabinets. While some effort is made to keep email folders organized, few lawyers are very good at it, and the sanctity of the “client file” has suffered. Most lawyers still keep a paper file for incoming and outgoing paper correspondence but fail to print the emails. Others try to keep specific client or matter electronic folders for email but do this individually, rather than as a team. Hence, three lawyers and one paralegal may each have an electronic correspondence file for a particular matter, but no single and complete file exists.

During the last two years, the Delaware courts have taken great strides introducing or expanding electronic filing. The Court of Chancery has now required eFiling in the great majority of its cases; and the Superior Court has expanded eFiling from complex litigation to include all matters in excess of the mandatory arbitration limit. The Delaware Bankruptcy Court has mandatory eFiling and the Delaware District Court will, no doubt, move to eFiling within the next several months. But once again, we are still bound to our notions of paper. The judges still want to read the paper, the lawyers still want to keep paper pleading and brief files, and many clients continue to maintain paper files as well. Notwithstanding the incredible use of emailing PDF files, Federal Express is still doing a booming business, since many people still want the original paper documents.

Why is all of this important? I believe, for us to overcome our psychological need for paper, the next phase of electronic documents need to be more “paper like.” The tools already exist, they are just not convenient or easy to use. In Outlook, one has the ability to create stationary to give correspondence a customize look and feel. It is incredible to me that more law firms have not converted their letterhead into an email template, as so many have in Word. Similarly, Adobe’s Acrobat has the ability to create links and bookmarks, but no easy way for the non-expert user to do this. Until lawyers and judges can look at a bound brief with tabs on the screen, they will continue to cling to the paper. However, once the electronic document takes on the look and feel of its paper counterpart, it will not be long before electronic convenience and efficiency completely trumps the paper.

The more interesting question is whether the paper has been the glue which keeps the conventional office alive. We go to the office because our files are there. Will the office of the future exist as we know it today, or will we carry our office in a briefcase or on our belts in a PDA? Where do you want to practice law five years from now???

Return to October 2004 Table of Contents.