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39 Judges J. 1 (2000)

handle is hein.journals/judgej39 and id is 1 raw text is: I CARCLU*N Technology By Donald B. Jarvis Years ago a friend, now deceased, remarked that the greatest changes he perceived in the twentieth century were the advances in transportation. At the beginning of the cen- tury, when he was a young boy living on a farm in Illinois, it was an all-day adventure for the family to saddle-up the horse and buggy and travel ten miles into town for a Sunday outing. When he spoke with me he marveled that the trip could now be made by automobile or airplane in a fraction of the time. (In fact, he had flown halfway across the country in the time it used to take to go from the farm to town.) As we approach the end of the century and the next mil- lennium we have assimilated and refined the developments in transportation. They are no longer novel. The frontier is now in communications and computers. Cellular tele- phones allow us to communicate with others from almost anywhere, including cars and airplanes, and even while walking down the street. (The fact that they also pose a safety hazard on the roads, and annoy us when used by others in theaters and restaurants, is a topic for another day.) The Internet allows us to communicate instantaneous- ly with people, businesses, and other entities around the world, and is a prodigious source of information, most of which is accurate and useful. Computers enable us to store and quickly retrieve a vast amount of data. They produce documents expeditiously, enable us to make calculations swiftly, and allow us to transmit documents rapidly via tax and e-mail. Although technology advances at a breathtaking pace, human nature changes slowly. It is inevitable that techno- logical change will affect how lawyers, judges, and the jus- tice system operate. Therefore, it is important that we make wise choices. Technology can be used to do good or it can be used to oppress. In adopting or adapting technology we must keep in mind that the goal of the justice system, as stated on the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., is equal justice under law. For instance, discovery is supposed to expedite the dis- position of the litigation, by educating the parties in advance of trial of the real value of their claims and defenses, which may encourage settlements, and assure the judgments rest upon the real merits of causes and not upon the skill and maneuvering of counsel... . (23 Am. Jur. Depos. & D. § 1). However, we have seen the process abused by parties with access to technology, who serve voluminous, computer-generated boilerplate interrogatories on less affluent opponents with little or no access to tech- nology. We have also seen an increase in so-called identi- ty theft facilitated by improper access to electronically stored information. In addition, technology raises a myriad of privacy issues that we are only now beginning to appreciate. We cannot foresee all the consequences of our actions. Yet, at the very least, we in the justice system ought to consider whether the application of technology will: (1) provide security so that only authorized persons can access the information; (2) protect individual privacy (e.g., addresses, Social Security numbers, medical information, etc., unless the information is otherwise available in a pub- lic record); (3) protect privileged communications; (4) cause financial hardship on persons impacted; and (5) facilitate rather than hinder equal access to justice. As the articles in this special issue demonstrate, technology has the potential to increase productivity, decrease costs, and facilitate the administration of justice. However, when it does not function as planned or is allowed to become obsolete, valuable resources are wasted with little or no benefit. Let us ensure that our choices in the use of technology result in furthering expeditious and economical access to justice. Donald B. Jarvis is an administrative law judge with the United States Department of Labor in San Francisco, California, and is chair of the Judicial Division. He also is a member of the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals.

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