... but they keep talking about it.
Here are excerpts from two recent law review articles discussing the use of technology by the legal profession: (If you have acces to LexisNexis, the links will work)
1. 32 Rutgers Computer & Tech. L.J. 183, CREATING REPRESENTATIONS OF JUSTICE IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM: LEGAL POETICS IN DIGITAL TIMES. Dr. Shulamit Almog. Dr. Almog is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Haifa, Faculty of Law, and the Editor-in-Chief of Haifa University Press.
..."the opportunities that digital tools offer with respect to the production, presentation, and transmission of documents. Producing a computerized document is considered today to be one of the simplest and most trivial everyday tasks. The capacity to transmit these documents through the Internet to any recipient in any place has brought to the legal process a wave of renewal and increasing efficiency. Many courthouses offer litigants the ability to send and receive documents through the Internet, follow the progress of the proceedings, and eventually receive the outcome of the trial through the court's web site. This "electronic filing" capability has greatly increased the efficiency of proceedings and shortened their duration.
The author cites to:
2) Fredric I. Lederer, The Road to the Virtual Courtroom? A Consideration of Today's - and Tomorrow's - High-Technology Courtrooms, 50 S.C. L. Rev. 799 (1999).
"... We are living in a technological age that is increasingly dependent upon computers and related information technology. ... Within the high-technology courtroom, counsel and judge have immediate electronic access to nearly all legal authorities. ... Why should this court, or any court, fear to tread into an area of advanced technology? To permit the plaintiff to testify via Real Time Video teleconferencing will enable the plaintiff to have the benefit of viewing the trial, and testify live via the Internet where he would otherwise not be present in court due to his medical condition... Permitting this plaintiff to view the trial and testify via the Internet clearly supports our court's public policy to permit handicapped individuals access to our courts. ... Courtroom technology potentially includes not only inexpensive, straightforward methods of evidence presentation such as document cameras, but possibly includes costly document scanning and expensive methods such as computer animation production. ... "
and to:
3) Lynn A. Epstein, The Technology Challenge: Lawyers Have Finally Entered the Race but Will Ethical Hurdles Slow the Pace?, 28 Nova L. Rev. 721, 737 (2004).
"...Lawyers are notoriously slow in adapting technology into their practice. In fact, many technology experts opine that lawyers were never in the race. Nonetheless, as technology has developed, specifically targeted at the legal field, many lawyers have begun to incorporate the technology into their daily activities because it simplifies the practice of law. "
I will have more of Lynn Epstein's law review article in the next post.
