I’ve never understood the fax machine. It’s a hulking piece of equipment that takes up a sizable portion of whatever room it is placed in. Never having needed one until my first legal job, I wasn’t particularly familiar with the technology.

It’s not complicated, but I could never remember: do I have to dial “9″ for an outside line? Do I put a “1″ in front of the number? What the heck is the little phone attached to it really used for? Add to that the necessity of creating and printing out a fax cover page, then coming back to check the machine to make sure “Transmission OK,” and it was obvious this was a piece of technology that should be retired.

My frustrations mounted when, in the week before a trial once, opposing counsel sent out 200 pages of new pleadings and exhibits via fax. The machine runs out of toner and runs out of paper, as you are probably well aware, and I wished on a number of occasions that everyone had email and could just scan and attach instead.

So, when I opened my new office recently, I was faced with the task of determining my own technology. I didn’t want a fax machine. I didn’t want to pay for a dedicated fax line. Unfortunately, there are lawyers (you know who you are) and clients who still use it.

Enter the virtual fax machine. There are a number of services that allow you to receive faxes as attachments to your e-mail and to send faxes out by e-mail. I tested a few of these, notably eFax (it took me under a minute to sign up, but two e-mails and three phone calls to cancel) and MetroFax (a slightly better interface than eFax).

These products even save old incoming and outgoing faxes. I can fax documents to multiple people at the same time. (Granted, you might be able to do this with some special features on a standard fax machine. I have no idea). The cost depends on your fax usage — I only needed the lowest option, so I pay under $8 per month.

A virtual fax machine is perfect for the paperless office. Incoming faxes are already scanned in, so they can be linked to the client file without the added step of scanning a hard-copy fax, which I probably would have just recycled, anyway. I can receive faxes on my smartphone while I’m away from the office. I know instantly whether an outgoing fax goes through, without having to stand by the fax machine waiting for a confirmation page to print.

Hopefully these electronic services are the death-knell for the physical machine. I know I’ll never have to share my office space with it again.

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