Lawyers urged to use imaging

The Supreme Courts of both New South Wales and Victoria have issued recommendations that lawyers use digital document formats instead of paper when they need to exchange hundreds of pages.

Practice Notes from both Courts advise lawyers in civil cases to agree to a "protocol" for electronic data exchange of discoverable documents such as pleadings and statements between themselves and the court.

The documents would be stored in a database as images, although no specific technologies were mandated in the missives.

The Victorian Note Number 3 1999 was modelled on the NSW Note 105, released in April and March respectively.

The NSW Note recommended digital formats when the list of documents to be exchanged was above 500, while the Victorians raised the bar to 1000.

The Notes do not touch on issues of authentication, instead leaving it to negotiations between the court and lawyers as to agreeing on specifics.

Both Notes set out a suggested format for the records of the images which should be "considered" by participating lawyers.

The NSW Supreme Court practices are available through www.agd.nsw.gov.au/sc/sc.nsf/pages/scpractice/. The Victorian practice note is at www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/99pn3.htm.