Hear ye, hear ye, saving tax money is right verdict

Few professions are as wrapped in tradition as the legalprofession, with its robed judges, gavels and archaic Latin phrasesthat sound like incantations from the latest "Harry Potter" book.

But even lawyers can adapt to change; otherwise, they would allbe wearing powdered wigs.

So, in an era of iPads, Kindle and Nook ebook readers, we may beseeing the end of row upon row of dusty, bulky law books.

The Illinois Supreme Court has adopted a method for citing casesthat will do away with the need for printing official bound volumes.Instead, a protocol has been established for citing paragraphs inelectronic versions of the opinion.

It would be easy to shrug off this latest announcement and itsthree-page news release as a development only lawyers could love -or care about. Who cares if attorneys must seek a new form of weighttraining when they are no longer lugging law books around?

But, because there will be no need to publish and purchase theofficial bound volumes of Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Courtopinions for judges and court libraries, officials estimate, "Itwill save Illinois taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars ayear," according to the aforementioned news release.

That's not just worthy of note; it's worthy of being copied.

Every branch of government should be looking for ways to usetoday's technology to trim costs while still preserving - betteryet, enhancing - access to information.

Actually, most lawyers have already adapted to using the Internetfor their research; it was the courts that needed to change.

And while Illinois is behind several other states that made thischange earlier, court officials brag that Illinois was among thefirst to use Twitter in publicizing announcements.

Having official legal opinions on the court's website doesn'tjust help lawyers, judges and law clerks. It also makes them morereadily accessible to the public. The website - www.state.il.us/court - also has video and audio recordings of oral arguments.

Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride has cited greater courttransparency and efficiency as his goals. Transparency andefficiency are worthy goals to which all public officials shouldaspire. We look forward to more innovations that save money andimprove access to information.

But, even as lawyers adapt to new traditions, how quickly willthe public adapt their expectations of seeing row upon row of lawbooks as the backdrop to lawyers' television commercials?