The federal courts decided last month to allow the public to read criminal case files on the Internet. Six years ago, court administrators began scanning civil and bankruptcy cases into a new computer system developed at the prodding of a clerk in Cleveland who had to turn a court parking garage into a file room for an avalanche of asbestos damage suits.

No one is mourning the end of a paper system in which the lone copy of each case file was available only when the court clerk's office was open and a judge wasn't using it. Everyone applauds an electronic system that allows cases to be filed around the clock and case files to be read by any number of people at any hour, from any location.

Although no one has estimated nationwide savings, District Court Clerk Patricia L. Brune in Kansas City uses one-tenth the file space that paper required, is shouldering her largest workload ever and checking that every document is filed correctly - even with 11 staff vacancies. "Before we just checked samples because we were overrun just moving paper," she said.

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