Divorce Lawyer Practice: The Limits of Going Paperless
Almost all family attorneys wish to go paperless but few do. A paperless law practice is incredibly difficult for a number of reasons. Recent technology such as tablet computers and electronic filings are beginning to lead to changes. Ultimately, however, the idea of a paperless office is still a number of years away.
There is good reason for a divorce lawyer not to want to use paper. And it seems all so easy. All that you have to do is scan your documents as you receive them,
and scan them before they go out. Moreover, this saves having from physically storing them for whatever the number of years your local bar association requires. There is no need to worry about not having your files in the event of emergencies or the ethical problems that you will face if your documents are destroyed.
Despite the positives, for a divorce lawyer, electronically storing files is not yet practical enough. Even with modern, high performance computers, it is usually faster to find important documents in a file, than on a computer. Moreover, it is easier to share files with other colleagues working on the same case. While cloud computing is gaining wider acceptance, it is still less efficient to use computers to share documents when everyone who is in need of the material is in the same office. Additionally, there is no good way of bringing these documents to trial, if the case develops to such a point.
Having a paper file for clients is enormously useful. It is crucial for a divorce attorney to be able to keep all of their documents on a client in one place. For instance, it is only too easy to lose receipts during the course of litigation if they are not put into the folder within the client’s file designated for keeping track of the client’s costs. It is also scary to know that it is far easier to accidentally destroy electronic files than tangible ones.
There is a great hybrid approach that captures the best of both worlds. This is to keep a paper file for as long as the case is open. After you have completed representation, you can then scan the entire file in one sitting, and then destroy the original. In some jurisdictions, attorneys are required to keep their files intact for up to five years before destroying it. These jurisdictions, however, may allow you to destroy your file and store it electronically if you and your client have agreed to do this in your legal services agreement as part of your representation.
This hybrid approach will likely become obsolete in the next few years. Federal courts have switched already to electronic filing. While hardly any divorces are brought in federal court, electronic filing is surely to become standard in state courts. This means that a divorce attorney will be forced to have their documents stored electronically throughout the representation. Hopefully, tablet computers will develop to the point where they can be relied on in a manner similar as a physical file.
Before the future arrives, it is not necessary to be unhappy with the present. It is too cumbersome to store exclusively your entire file electronically. And it is too expensive to hold on physically to a paper file for years. A hybrid approach works just fine, though.
The above material is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended as professional legal advice and should not be construed as such. Attorney Will Beaumont practices in New Orleans, La.
