The growth and influence of technology in the practice of litigation has been a significant feature of the changes within the legal system in England and Wales. With the main drivers of legal process reform post-Woolf being speed and efficiency, the courts and the judiciary have opened themselves up to technological change with virtual witness statements and electronic case reports.
The status of evidence, how it is collected, how it is presented and how much each side can be expected to produce goes to the heart of that legal process. As evidence is increasingly stored in electronic format, and practitioners are forced to grapple with mountains of ‘virtual’ paper, how much should the rules of legal engagement be adjusted to reflect the changes that have already taken place elsewhere in business?
