July 18, 2012 – Ethical dilemmas affect every lawyer’s practice. This series of questions and answers appears each month in InsideTrack. The answers, offered by State Bar’s ethics counsel Timothy Pierce, are intended to provide guidance only and are not legal authority. Each situation will depend on the facts and circumstances involved.
Question
I’ve found that most of what now constitutes a client’s file exists on my computer. I keep my notes on the computer, generate all my documents on the computer and scan in all documents that I receive from opposing parties. Do I still have to keep paper files?
Answer
It is not a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct to maintain client files in electronic form as long as the lawyer is able to provide the file in a format usable by the client, preserves important original documents, and takes reasonable steps to preserve confidentiality
References: SCR 20:1.15, 20:1.16; Wisconsin Ethics Opinion E-00-03, Virginia Ethics Opinion 1818 (2005); Maintaining Electronic Client Files, T. Pierce, 79 Wis. Law. 24 (September 2006).
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