The Florida Bar wants lawyers to join the digital age.
The state Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on a bar proposal for lawyers to exchange most pleadings by email instead of on paper.
It's being billed as the first significant change in the way law is practiced in Florida in well more than a century.
A lawyer for the state's public defenders argued that criminal cases should be exempted until the court system itself goes digital.
Assistant Public Defender John Morrison of Miami said that way taxpayers would have to pay for only one transition, not two.
Questions also were raised about security.
The proposed rule would not prohibit lawyers from making paper copies, but they would have to exchange documents by email instead of the U.S. Postal Service.
