Well, it certainly slows things down doesn’t it. But what else should you do? It depends. (Don’t you hate it when lawyers say that?) But really it does. Is the problem email or that they won’t put anything in writing? If the former, just use snail mail and fax. It’s slow but it does work.

If they won’t put anything in writing, you have a different problem–a credibility and trustworthiness problem. If you cannot trust the other lawyer, costs and difficulty rises exponentially.

Now let me be a devil’s advocate here for a minute and explain why some do not use email in litigation.

1. Knee-jerk responses happen much more easily via email and can haunt you forever.

2. Email can easily be intercepted by parties who shouldn’t have access to them.

3. Emails are very easy to modify/manipulate/change. Unless you know a great deal about computers and go in and check coded headings, an unethical person can easily turn an email into something it wasn’t originally.

4. Nothing like good old solid paper with a real signature to make both the sender and recipient sit up and take notice.

If the other side is representing herself, well, I only use paper and snail mail. It’s more expensive but worth it.