Arizona's e-filing pioneer: biggest barrier is changing people.

Rarely does he touch a piece of paper, as Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Phil Espinosa works on a case.

A trio of flat-screen monitors lines his desk.

The first screen displays the decision he is writing on his word processor.

The second screen is filled with the record on appeal and a listing of items he can click on to read.

And the third screen makes ready the complete trial transcript that he can search and cut and paste.

"It saves an incredible amount of time," said Judge Espinosa. "And it doesn't matter where you are. I can work on a case in my hotel room in Boston or in my house in Tucson."

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Since a pilot project in 1998, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two (the lower half of the state) has been ahead of the e-filing curve.

When he became chief judge in Tucson's Division Two, Espinosa carried out what his predecessor chief judge had begun and implemented cutting-edge court technology that brought in 2001 the first electronic filing system in Arizona and became a model for the nation.

"We don't mail anything anymore. Everything goes out electronically," said Espinosa. "We are approaching a paperless court."

Because of Espinosa's pioneering appeals in cyberspace, he teaches CLEs and is often invited to share what he knows about paperless courts. He plans to bring his computer demonstration to Orlando during the ABA's Appellate Judges Education Institute's Summit November 19-22.

While Arizona's entire judicial system does not yet have e-filing, Espinosa's wealth of experience is timely, as Florida advances toward statewide e-filing and an integrated court computer system (see June 1 News). The biggest surprises?

"How relatively inexpensive it was and how well it all works," Espinosa said. "We were armed for bear and the bear never showed up. We had security up the yin-yang to handle all these scenarios that never happened."

The biggest barriers?

"I would say the greatest barrier is people--getting people to change the way they do things. You'd probably find some quills and ink wells in some appellate courts in the country. Technology hits us last," Espinosa said.

Describing himself as "not a technical person at all," Espinosa bought his own computer two decades ago when he was an assistant U.S. attorney, for the practical purpose of more efficiently handling his load of criminal cases.

When he became an appellate judge in 1992, no one at the Division Two courthouse had a computer and everyone was writing in...