Going "paperless" is all the rage now. I recently took a seminar on "the paperless legal office." Many industries have achieved paperless bliss to one degree or another. But my profession has unique challenges.
Scanning equipment is getting faster and less expensive. Theoretically, one can scan in all the incoming paper; snail mail and the rest then face the real task of organizing it all.
My clients have had e-files, in addition to their paper files, for years. Outgoing correspondence is easy; just save it to the file while printing. As e-mail comes in, it's filed. I have e-fax, so those documents too remain in cyber world without wasting paper.
People used to take photographs, run them to the store, run back for the prints, and then drive to my office with copies. We filed them. If we were all lucky the prints would not fall on the floor the next time the file was picked up. I remember office assistants guessing which loose photos went into which file. Now, my clients e-mail me digital images and I click them into the e-file.
All of this raises issues.
First is confidentiality. E-mail is not fully secure. I ask clients not to use it unless they understand and consent.
Two hours into the paperless office seminar, an attorney said she didn't trust the e-demons. She pointed out that computers crash. Hard drives melt down.
She's right and had the courage to stand up and say what the rest of us were thinking.
But, in the old days of paper files, what if the office burned down? It happened. I worked for a law firm that had a fire before I worked there. The (I am certain romanticized) story was that one partner stayed up on the third floor throwing files down to another partner on the sidewalk below until the firefighters stopped them.
I heard stories of another law office hit by a fire several decades ago. Long after the fire they still used the blaze as a convenient excuse for not being able to find things. This e-file thing eliminates that excuse.
Another issue is file retention. Rules require us to store materials for certain periods of time. But what difference does it make if it's paper or digital?
What computer wizards call "redundant backup" is vital to a paperless world. We backup on a CD. We also have an off-site automatic backup service.
That raises even more issues. The first time a consultant advised me with the unflinching certainty unique to computer techs to back everything up off-site, I questioned it. If I had all of his personal, financial and other sensitive information on my computer, would he want it backed up off-site? I got a sheepish smile. Encryption technology, I am promised, are ahead of hackers.
Attorneys finally seek a paperless world. We must. You can't file a paper document in federal court. They went paperless several years ago. You file, pay the filing fee, and receive court orders all electronically. State courts aren't there yet. It's only a matter of time.
Anyone visiting my offices knows I'm far from paperless paradise. I like old law books and colorful periodicals. And paper clutters my desk. But paperless is here.
I was talking to someone in the office about this subject when the phone rang. I answered and reflexively grabbed a tablet and pen, despite the note-taking capability on my computer. It's hard to break old habits.
Andrew Myers of Derry has law offices in Derry and North Andover, Mass. He is a member of the American Association for Justice and the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association. Send questions to andrew@attorney-myers.com.
