VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/76434
9A as case filings for court go, paper use has only increased for his firm. He said the courts often request a cour- tesy hard copy anyway. "Let me put it this way, I've been practicing law in this community for 40 years. There's no indication inter- nally of any reduction in physical paper," he said. "Every time I have a good day, somewhere a pulp tree is condemned to death." Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, of the Eighth Judicial District Court, said the court system implemented man- datory e-filing on all civil cases in 2010, after a voluntary period in 2009. More than 10,000 cases were e-filed in the first half of this year. She said e-filing is helping to cut down paper, primarily because it takes away the physical copies at the clerk's office. About a year ago, the court converted 12,000 boxes, or about 23 million pages, of civil suit documents to electronic form. The old documents were shredded and the extra storage space was put to- ward new courtrooms opening with- in the next year. About 20 staffers were cut at the clerk's office in the past few years, the judge added, as having documents stored electronically has eliminated the personnel needed to go through boxes of files. But the judge admits that it's com- mon in complex commercial litiga- tion cases to ask for courtesy copies from attorneys. It's often a case of dealing with a 500-page document and needing to find a small para- graph or image in it when she asks for a hard copy. It's simply too diffi- cult to find some information on an electronic file, she says. "It's not in every case. But in busi- ness court, I would say about 70 per- cent of the time, I need a courtesy copy," she said. "That's probably low- er for the judges who hear straight civil cases though." Courtesy copies can still run up a printing bill for attorneys. In some complex litigation, copies of a filing may be needed for dozens of people. In CityCenter litigation several years ago, which Gonzalez oversaw, some 60 to 80 copies of documents were Alice O'Hearn Bailey Kennedy LLP aul Hejmanowski Lionel Sawyer & Collins P Craig Newby McDonald Carano Wilson made at times, even though much of that case was filed and viewed elec- tronically. Hejmanowski also said there are those who simply prefer hard copies. Even e-mail memos sent among col- leagues still sometimes get printed. "They want to make notes and mark them up and that's not so easy to do electronically," he added. Craig Newby, a partner with Mc- Donald Carrano Wilson, graduated from law school in 2000, and has seen a transformation to electronic stor- age that he views as productive and paper-saving in his 10-plus years of practice. In his early days, there were still plenty of staffers going through old files, he remembers. Even today, he comes across attorneys less will- ing to hand over a flash drive. "Some attorneys are still in love with hard copy documents only and they're still producing printed copies of emails," he added. Newby also makes careful note of how a judge prefers to get his infor- mation. And yes, there are those who still want a hard copy, regardless. "We're trying to do everything we can to minimize the impact on the en- vironment," he said. "But ultimately, my job is to advocate for my client and if the best way to do that is for the judge to see a hard copy, they're going to get a hard copy." Top Lawyers are nothing without Top Clients. John R. Bailey Joshua M. Dickey Celebrating our success together with top-notch clients including Bill Walters and the Corrigan family. (702) 562-8820 Dennis L. Kennedy Sarah E. Harmon www.BaileyKennedy.com