MinnLawyer Blog

I couldn’t help chuckling when I saw the recent changes the Minnesota Supreme Court made to the Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure. (Now there’s a sentence you don’t hear said that often.) Under the section on diagrams and demonstrative aids, the court deleted the following sentence: “The plat or diagram may be be drawn on the courtroom blackboard.” Instead, the court inserted language pertaining to the set-up and removal of video-projection and audio equipment in an apparent tip of the hat to the changing level of technological sophistication of the legal profession.

Some might find it sad, but it’s inevitable byproduct of the relentless march of technology that the courtroom blackboard has now officially been relegated to the dustbin of judicial history. Chalk this one up to the changing times.