E-filing's proponents: get ready, it's coming.

Any problems associated with moving to an e-filing system for all court documents are solvable, including providing that a handful of documents may also continue to be maintained in paper form, the Supreme Court has been told.

The court heard from a variety of parties--Bar rules committees, public defenders, state attorneys, and court clerks--during a wide-ranging oral argument on November 3 in case no. 11-399, dealing with procedural rule amendments necessary to implement e-filing in Florida's trial and appellate courts.

Interest has been increased because after the initial filing, the court asked the Florida Court Technology Commission --which advises the court on technology matters and is overseeing the transfer to e-filing--to submit a proposal for making e-filing mandatory for lawyers.

The FCTC responded with a report that said court clerks would be ready by July 1, 2012, to receive all civil filings and by December 31, 2012, for all criminal filings. It recommended that e-filing become mandatory for those respective cases nine months after those dates. Deadlines for appellate filings would be the same as for civil filings.

Keith Park, chair of the Rules of Judicial Administration Committee, led off the presentations and told the justices that the hardest part of writing the e-filing rules was determining exceptions where paper documents would still be required.

"We have a mandatory e-filing situation, yet at the same time we have issues on what might have to be maintained as original documents," he said. "I think part of that will work itself out over time and may require statutory changes."

Park noted that the probate rules--the first area to become available for e-filing --originally had a long list of exceptions for documents that would have to be filed by paper. That was eventually reduced to two: wills and codicils.

"I think we're all on the same page. The question is regarding these exceptions, how we are going to work with them," he added.

"This may be a work in progress with this rule as we go along."

"Part of that is how much we trust the electronic world," said Justice Barbara Pariente, who noted some of the justices --including her--bring their iPads with them on the bench.

"I think the challenge is that this electronic world has to be not only user-friendly, but it has to show both lawyers and judges that it's going to give them great benefits on how they use it in their work," Pariente said. An electronic system that...