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R. Lainie Wilson Harris, Esq.*
Abstract:
Lawyers are taught to be kind to their audiences in their legal writing form and function. With the advent of e-filing rules around the country, it is time for lawyers to fully embrace adaptations needed to make the e-reading experience comfortable for screen reading. When a document is read on a screen, there are no physical pages, but only paragraphs to scroll through. The entire look and experience of a document changes because of the scrolling versus page-turning.
This article explores the mandatory or permissive status of e-filing in the federal and state jurisdictions. Second, the article reviews the differences between reading in print and onscreen, and highlights those areas where legal writing forms will necessarily require technical and visual adaptation for readers’ maximum comprehension and thus for the authors’ persuasion and advocacy.
* Visiting Instructor, Georgia Southern University.