Our US business conducted a survey recently which found that lawyers’ paperwork undermines billing efficiency. The full report can be read in The Wall Street Journal. The so called ‘efficiency gap’ (the space between lawyers who bill for nearly all the hours they work and those who spend up to 60 per cent of their time on non-billable tasks) is being filled with paperwork in many cases. If this is true of the UK (which I imagine it is), then the recent comments by Gloster J in Berezovsky v Abramovich will have caught the attention of many litigators.
Paper-logged lawyers watching the climax of the Berezovsky v Abramovich battle will have noticed that Gloster J complimented the use of electronic documentation, stating that is was “highly organised and easily accessible”. The comments of the judge could herald a new era in the way trials are run, especially large scale international proceedings, with a move towards a paperless courts.
