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The savvy tech journalists among us know that fax-over-IP (FoIP) can sometimes perform superhuman feats, but can FoIP go so far as to send criminals to jail?

Surprisingly, yes.

A Paris court just released the prime suspect in a murder investigation, a suspect that was incarcerated and awaiting trial, because it used unreliable fax technology instead of the more modern and dependable IP fax.

The tale is one of legal procedure coming against a technology goof. The prime suspect in the 2010 murder of a French DJ was released after a fax machine used by the court during the appeals process ran out of toner.

The appeal by the convicted murder was submitted by fax, and by law the court needed to reply to the appeal within 20 days or set the suspect free.

The fax machine used by the court ran out of toner, however, so the court did not have the opportunity to reply to the appeal because it never saw it.

According to the New York Daily News, the fax machine was so old that staff at the court could not even find replacement toner.

The victim’s widow, Fabienne Elisor, told Le Parisien, "This man has been freed for a problem of fax ink. I am disgusted. I don't understand how such a thing can happen.”

Obviously outraged, she went on: "What am I going to tell my children? I am appalled at the attitude of the justice system to us."

This problem would not have occurred if the court had been using an IP fax system. That’s because unlike traditional fax machines, FoIP receives faxes digitally, and therefore, there never would have been a toner issue.

Had the appeal come in by way of FoIP, it could have been automatically sent to the court’s e-mail address and the suspect would not be set free on grounds of a technicality.

Further, with FoIP there is the possibility of automatic document routing. So not only would FoIP have avoided the whole issue of the unprinted appeal, it also would have prevented the scenario where the appeal came in and was unseen by staff. With automatic document routing, the fax could automatically have been sent to one or more staff at the court, ensuring that it was seen and processed well within the 20-day legal limit.

IP fax to the rescue? Apparently so!