How Paperless Court Filings Add Seven Hours of Free Time to My Day

By Carolyn Elefant

Not all court deadlines are created equally.  When I practice in far-off jurisdictions that don’t accept electronic filings, the ten or twenty-day response time gets cut short by a day so that I can have my pleadings copied and sent out by Fed-Ex the day before the deadline.

By contrast, when I practice in federal court, I can make full use of the entire response time down to the last minute in the day as a result of  electronic filing and the federal courts’ practice of counting anything filed before midnight as timely for that day. And while the difference may not seem to matter much, once you realize that between 5pm (the deadline at most state courts and agencies where I practice) and midnight lie seven exquisite hours – nearly an extra workday – to finalize and file a pleading.

Moreover, it goes without saying that electronic filings can considerably reduce costs.  In one jurisdiction where I practice, we’re required to file documents electronically but follow up with seventeen copies by the next day.  The cost to photocopy and Fed-Ex a relatively modest sized document – about 45 pages total – came to around $150.

I consider Adobe Acrobat Pro an indispensable tool for e-filing.  Most of the jurisdictions where I practice require e-filed documents in PDF format — and while most word-processing programs will allow users to save a document as a PDF, Adobe Pro includes many other useful features.  For example, with Adobe Pro, I can compile several PDF exhibits into one unified document, which can be bate-stamped and indexed.  Thus, the format is far more user friendly than filing a pleading and seven separate attachments.  Adobe Pro also allows me to hyperlink between documents in my bundled packet so that a reader can click on the link and jump directly to the referenced exhibit.

While Adobe Pro can be pricey, my Adobe Pro product came bundled with my Fujitsu Snap Scanner; together the two cost me under $500 when I purchased them several years ago.  If this kind of bundled deal isn’t available — or if you don’t need a scanner — you can find less expensive alternatives to Adobe Pro that will perform the same functions.

Fortunately, it’s unusual for me to have to scan any exhibits.  These days, most discovery – even at regulatory agencies – is transmitted electronically, so the documents are already in digital format when it’s time to compile them.  For larger documents, I use the Fujitsu Snap Scanner to convert them to digital.  But if I only have one page to scan, I’m generally too lazy to even hook up my Snap Scan, and instead, I’ll use Scanner Pro, an iphone scanning app by Readle.  It’s not the least expensive app per se, but it was easy to install quickly when I needed a scanner on travel — and it works quite well.

The last touch that I add to my e-filings is my signature – my real one, not my name typed out in italics or a digital signature.  A friend of mine created my e-signature for me by taking a photo of it and then resizing it with a graphics package.  Because I’ve had my e-signature for six years now, I haven’t kept abreast of the tools available to create them more easily but I do know that they’re out there.

Truly, e-filing is magical.  With the push of a send button, I can magically ZAP my document from my desktop computer into the court’s files.  And get an extra seven hours in my day, to boot.   And if that’s not magic, I’m not sure what is.

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