Electronic Arguments Electronic documents provide us with tools that allow untold possibilities for organizing information. For example, electronic documents can be hypertext linked to statutes and case precedents cited in the document. Hypertext, used on the Internet's World Wide Web every day by millions of people, appears to the viewer as a highlighted word or phrase, perhaps in a different color. This same capability can easily be brought to the legal world. By clicking on the link word, the reader can call the full text of a statute or case decision to the screen.
Lawyers can access a wealth of information with the touch of a finger.
Attorneys could create hypertext outlines to link their key points to phrases in the documents, statutes, and case precedents. While this can be done now with some computer outliners, the application is restricted to the people, firms, and courts that are already equipped to prepare the information. Electronic documents would broaden these applications significantly. This focusing capability has the greatest potential to allow lawyers to deliver more effective services to their clients. When attorneys structure information in key points, with supporting arguments and references linked in a logical manner, judges will be able to glean knowledge from the pleading more quickly and accurately.