ePleadings

Last semester, my girlfriend almost missed a pleading deadline. It's not her fault, but since all OLA interns are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the cases handled by them, the mess-ups would still be attributed to us. It's 7 pm and the regular PhilPost offices are already closed. Upon desperate inquiry, we learned that there's a PhilPost kiosk in SM Mall of Asia which is open up to 10 pm. We rushed to Manila, feeling that this 4-unit course weighs like a 2,000-unit one. We were able to make it and mail the pleading out without issue. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to pearl shakes on the way to the parking lot. End of story.

I was reminded of this experience when I came across a page in the Court of Criminal Appeals in the State of Texas which allows emergency filing through email. If we had something similar like this, I imagined how less stressful life would have been. While we are taught to be prompt and to finish requires submissions ahead of time, the reality is that sometimes there is not enough time to do everything required of us. I hope that in the few years, the Rules would be amended so that we could e-file pleadings and motions.