SC takes paperless route for ecology

The Supreme Court building in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court will slowly be implementing a “paper-less judiciary” as part of its environmental advocacy.

A new set of regulations would maximize the use of every sheet of paper in rulings to be issued by the courts and in the pleadings to be filed by parties.

The Supreme Court en banc, through Administrative Matter No. 11-9-4 SC or the Efficient Use of Paper Rule promulgated on Nov. 13, noted that there was a need to cut the judicial system’s use of “excessive quantities of costly paper, save our forests, avoid landslides and mitigate the worsening effects of climate change that the world is experiencing.”

The rule, effective Jan. 1, shall apply to all courts and quasijudicial bodies under the administrative supervision of the Supreme Court.

The new rule requires all pleadings, motions and similar papers intended for the consideration of all courts and quasijudicial bodies to be written in single space with one-and-a-half space between paragraphs, using an easily readable 14-size font of the party’s choice and on 13- by 8.5-inch bond paper.

All decisions, resolutions and orders issued by courts and quasijudicial bodies, as well as reports submitted to the courts and transcripts of stenographic notes, are subject to the same requirements. Jerome Aning