Internet Trends

What Can Lawyers Expect As the Internet Matures?

Web-based tools will become more sophisticated and flexible.

By William Skeels IV

BY NOW, the Internet has become a fixture in the law office, with legal professionals routinely using e-mail to communicate, using Web search engines to locate information resources, performing fact research thorough specialty Web sites, and even accessing traditional legal research through Web browsers.

But what can lawyers expect as the Internet matures?

Web Browsers

The Web browser plays an increasingly important role in creating and managing day to day work product for the attorney. Web facilities support practice management functions such as client intake and processing management, and online time-and-billing management. Web-based smart forms can also support substantive work product functions, including creation of documents, assembly of draft briefs, and preparation of required forms from information stored in online databases.

Web-based forms are in use for data assembly, work product creation, filing and transmittal processes in areas ranging from real property transaction title insurance to corporate filing preparation and submittal. While first generation form tools focused primarily on the important issue of creation of documents which mimic existing paper forms, current applications complete the electronic cycle. This will include the ability to create digital versions of the submittals for electronic filings, performing workflow and notification functions, and assisting with the entire work product/workflow process.

Electronic Filing

Online filing is in the future for North Carolina lawyers, at the state and ultimately other levels of government. The North Carolina Appellate Courts already permit online filing of briefs and related material. State government is making moves to support online filing as well.

"The legislature has assigned the task of laying the foundation for online filing to the office of the Secretary of State" explains Representative Frank Gray of Wake County, N.C., based on its central role in maintaining the numerous documents which are ultimately subject to electronic filing and storage. The Secretary of State has established a pilot project for U.C.C. filings.

The trend toward support for electronic filing is national, and inevitable in the long term. Progress in this regard, though spotty, will accelerate as agencies learn from the experience of projects currently underway.

Public Records

Online access to public records of various types has long been the hallmark of the Internet. In fact, the ability to obtain access to judicial opinions, legislation and other official material was one of the initial incentives which brought many attorneys to use of the Web.

The trend continues, as additional agencies and branches of government are making the sometimes difficult transition to online access. An example may be found in Wake County, where the Register of Deeds makes real property transactional information available. It is expected that other registers will follow suit, building on the example and lessons learned from the Wake County project.

Other records -- including court schedules, regulations, required documents and similar material -- are online in various formats. The expanding ability of attorneys to access material online is matched by their expectations that practice-related material will be accessible, making the growth of online resources inevitable.

Fast Connection

While extremely fast 'broadband' and wireless Internet access are not functions as such, no discussion of the near future of the Web would be complete without mentioning their effect. Whether based on DSL, cable modems or other technology, most offices will have very fast 'always on' Internet access in the very near future. And whether based on handheld devices, laptop computers or even tiny hand-held telephones, the Web will, at least at some level, be accessible from almost anywhere. These fast, available anywhere, connections will have a profound effect on workflow, with factors ranging from ease of access to complex workflow to security concerns causing wide-ranging changes in the way professionals and society as a whole manage their work and client relationships.

Most significantly, fast 'always on' Internet communication continues to raise expectations as to availability of the functions here discussed, whether for broader and wider Web-based smart forms capability, additional electronic filing functions, and access to additional official public information online.

Given increased use of the Internet in the legal community and the availability of faster and more geographically diverse access, progress on all these fronts is related far more to information structure than technical factors.

Perhaps the primary factor is the need for a common means of representing a given type of legal document, filing or other item, that is, the need for a data standard to support creation, filing and other digital exchange of everything from complaints to contracts.

Why are standards so important? The efficiencies gained from electronic exchange of information can be quickly lost if the computers, and those who use them, do not have a common means of automatically recognizing the elements of which they are composed.

While digital standards come in many forms, the key mechanism is a set of Internet structures called XML. While XML does not dictate a given format, it provides a set of common rules which can be used for such purposes, and which if observed are recognized by critical Internet tools such as Web browsers and email packages. Unlike past data exchange mechanisms such as EDI, XML has the additional advantage of being human-readable with a modest amount of training.

A working group called LegalXML is in the early stages of addressing the daunting task of creating proposed XML-based standards describing legal documents and other information-based items, based on the larger XML standards adopted by the technology community Their work may provide useful infrastructure to support Web-based smart form, electronic filing, information access and other legal information functions.

William Skeels IV is a partner in Strout & Skeels, a database and Internet consulting firm, in Raleigh, N.C. He also is the founder of LawSight, an Internet resource for the legal professional.