Mordeno and e-mail pleadings

By Joe Pallugna

I CANNOT help but start this column with congratulatory words to Atty. Dale Bryan Mordeno who was recently elected as governor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Eastern District. He would serve office for two years or up to year 2015.

Dale is a brother in the Scintilla law fraternity and is a former president of the IBP Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental chapter. With Atty. Robert Raypon who is also a Scintillian brod, as our IBP CDO-Misor president for 2013 to 2015, Dale will lead the IBP into better directions and more practical programs. This I am sure.

Dale conveyed to me an intended working conference in Davao City in July to review and propose amendments to the Rules of Court, the set of rules that govern the practice of law in our courts.

Of course, there are many proposed changes, some of which are good and really needed while others may just complicate the already muddled rules. But I believe everyone then will have an open mind and would endeavor to make the best proposed changes.

One suggestion I made to Dale is to allow the filing of pleadings through e-mail. That means that lawyer may be allowed to file their motions, oppositions, comments, pre-trial briefs, offers of exhibits, memoranda, position papers and any other pleadings by e-mail.

This would not only be paperless and would save millions of trees each year but would also save on transportation costs to go to courier offices or in delivering copies to opposing parties and in going to courts to file the pleadings. This would save time and money.

I’m sure many would argue that not all lawyers or courts have Internet connections or even have computers, and that not all lawyers are familiar with e-mail procedures. This would only be a temporary deficiency as very few now have no access to computers and Internet connections. The Supreme Court Administrator can allocate budgets in the next 12 months to make sure that all courts have Internet access and are equipped with computers and that e-mails are available to each court.

And the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) of lawyers should include special lectures on how to sign up for e-mail accounts for lawyers and law offices and how to show proof that copies of pleadings were already sent to opposing parties, and how they are to be filed in court by e-mail.

There would certainly be an adjustment stage and confusion may arise at the beginning but as we get accustomed to filing pleadings by e-mail, we would learn to appreciate how technology has made life so easier for most of us.

There are many countries in the world now, the United States of America the foremost, that make use of fax and e-mails as means of formal and legal modes of communication. Even embassies and governments worldwide employ e-mails and faxes as the only means of sending communication and data.

So by the time Gov. Dale goes to Davao City for the working conference in July, he should have his own ideas of how to propose changes in the Rules of Court to allow e-mail and fax as modes of filing pleadings in the courts. This alone could be one of his greatest accomplishments during his governorship – helping install a means of using the Internet and its e-mail technology into the procedure that lawyers employ to practice law. Again, my congratulations to Gov. Dale!

E-mail: joepallugna@yahoo.com