The advantages of electronic filing systems are compelling. UK courts and lawyers should welcome this inevitable paper-free development, which is already delivering greater efficiencies and time savings in the US, argues US attorney David Masters

I am a small-firm general practitioner in rural western Colorado, and I have a paper-free law office. When the courts where I practise adopted electronic filing systems, it was a breakthrough. When that happened, we began obtaining, storing, retrieving, sharing and delivering information in the same way - electronically.


Although I am an American, I have a passport, and have seen something of how things work in the UK. I have come across the ocean to give my views on the use of IT in the practice of law and, more particularly, my view of electronic filing systems.


The compelling advantages of electronic filing can be neither ignored nor avoided. Lawyers need to accept electronic court filing as another step on the continuum of information processing.


Think about what it means to be able to file pleadings and retrieve documents filed by others from any location with an Internet connection. Five o'clock filing deadlines can be extended to midnight. Notice and copies of documents filed by others arrive within minutes of their receipt by the court. Real-time filing receipts eliminate the need to obtain conformed copies. With electronic systems, lawyers deliver documents enhanced with information-sharing features - hyperlinks to audio and video, image and text files.


As courts adopt electronic systems, lawyers fall into three broad categories. One group, the unfortunates, resist change and, to the extent that they refuse to adapt, are left behind. For another group, electronic court-filing systems serve as the impetus to move their practices from paper to electronic files. For the third group, those that have already moved to digital files, electronic systems are a natural extension of how they already process information.


From handwritten to typewritten pleadings, from carbon copies to photocopies, from paper-based files to electronic filing systems, the methods by which courts and lawyers exchange information have changed and will continue to evolve over time. Why resist?


Lawyers process information. We do not build homes, manufacture cars, or spin straw into gold. Clients bring us information, we seek out more, and in the end we deliver information. Contracts, correspondence, pleadings, opening statements and closing arguments are just some of the ways by which lawyers deliver information. Acquiring, storing, retrieving, analysing, sharing and delivering information are simply part of the process.


Humans have always been information processors. We began to collect information through observation, but storage was limited to what lies within our craniums. Being clever creatures, we eventually employed technology to carve predator warnings or food locations on trees and rocks, and with that made the information available for retrieval and sharing. Thereafter came parchment, papyrus, the printing press, the typewriter, the telegraph, radio, teletype, the television, the mimeograph then the photocopier, fax, email and we await whatever is next, from multimedia instant messaging to mobile video conferencing and much more.


Even lawyers who eschew modern technology know that personal computers and other electronic devices have changed the way we handle information. Computers, once thought valuable only for their ability to crunch numbers, are great devices for dealing with information. Lawyers who use modern IT have become model information workers in an information economy. But where are those who fail to use IT? Left behind - that is where.


But fear not. Even if you stand far from the bleeding edge of technology adoption, you may not be left behind. You probably use more modern IT than you realise.


Lawyers who use a computer and software application to record their time and generate bills have committed a significant portion of their practice to IT. Those who use an electronic calendar and address book have taken yet another step. These back-office functions are often the first parts of the practice to move from paper-based systems to modern, electronic methods.


Fast on the heels of back-office functions come electronic versions of legal research and moving document preparation from paper to electronic media.


Who are lawyers to think that modern IT could be put to work in their offices but not in the institutions of government with which they interact? Just as lawyers need to be effective in processing information, so do the courts. To realise the efficiency offered by IT, courts in the US have developed or are developing electronic filing systems. In the UK trials are small but have begun.


Electronic systems are simply more efficient than paper-based systems. When courts recognise the efficiencies, their use may become mandatory - a prospect that worries some. But, as surely as information systems change over time, fair is fair. When your firm moved to an electronic time and billing system, handwritten timesheets were no longer permitted, right?


Electronic filing marks a point on the evolutionary continuum of how lawyers process information. It should be no more disruptive than the rule that required court filings to be typed rather than handwritten. As with most advances in IT, the gains appear to be exponential.


David Masters practises law in the Rocky Mountains, and writes and speaks