"Electronic Government" news

There've been several items in the past couple of days relating to developments in "electronic courts & government" trends.


First of all, there was an article on USA Today's online version on Aug. 19th. about state and local governments increasing using electronic services. "


A Law.com article on Aug. 24th. relates a decision by Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Leonard Austin's tackling the growing, but largely uncharted, area of the law-- in New York, at least-- dealing with who bears the cost of electronic discovery.
"In issues over paper discovery," the article says, "a judge must determine whether the demanded material exists, whether its material & necessary for the case, and whether or not it's priviledged."
Ruling in what appeared to be an absence of precedent, Justice Austin applied the rule that governs paper document production: The extraction of information from an old computer will be borne by the side requesting it.


And finally, an article in the Aug. 17th. issue of U.S. Law Week relates the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws' approving a proposed uniform law that would "streamline real estate transactions by gradually replacing paper-based land recording systems with electronic ones."
The law can be viewed @ http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/ulc/urpera/Approvedfinal2004.htm