Law firms primarily use IT as an administration tool. But while this might help track down a client's last known address, it does nothing to tackle the problem of the 200-year-old deeds sitting at the back of the office. Nor does it help to speed up the time taken to complete a legal transaction.
Conveyancing is likely to become the first area of legal practice to comprehensively use a system for electronic document exchange. The majority of time spent in conveyancing is waiting – for deeds to be released, for contracts to be agreed, signed, witnessed… the list is endless. The uptake of e-conveyancing would not alter the finer legal points of property law, but allowing information to
be transferred instantaneously will significantly help to reduce waiting times and will allow transactions to be completed within a matter of days, rather than months.
However, many firms are adopting a 'wait and see'
attitude because of the issues of security and client confidentiality. Some solicitors experiment with devices such as online dealrooms and most are now happy to use the internet to research a case or contact people through e-mail, but because of the lack of security available through the internet many lawyers are unwittingly exposing their clients to information risk. A practical solution is to buy into a specially designed private network capable of rendering communications completely impenetrable to the outside world. After all, the lack of security available on the internet has caused problems for many companies, primarily those dealing with the electronic transfer of money, but it is not just the shopping websites that have been subjected to hacking attacks.
On the internet, no package can ever guarantee complete security, simply because the infrastructure of the web was not designed to allow this to happen. Simple mistakes have led to banks allowing customer account information to be accessed by unauthorised users – not to mention the threat posed by hackers. The latest government figures available show that last year alone £10bn was lost through breaches in internet security. Confidential legal information suddenly finding its way into the public domain could create serious problems as well as damage the reputation of and confidence in the legal profession. At the very least, a lawyer's duty of care is to guarantee their clients complete confidentiality.
Imagine the scenario in e-conveyancing, where two parties are trying to outbid each other for a commercial property and, with the closing date looming, the opportunity to hack into an e-conveyancing system available online would allow some bidders to 'discover' the price of their competitors, giving them an unfair advantage. The ease with which clauses in a contract can be altered may mean that the vendor or purchaser has actually committed themselves to an agreement which they did not sign.
One solution is to adopt digital signatures, which allow messages to be encrypted by the sender and can only be accessed by a user with the correct key. However, one of the principal problems in this scenario is that there is no uniform way of regulating digital signatures and therefore no way of knowing whether the identity of the recipient is genuine.
A better approach is to use a supplier that has forged a partnership with a global authority responsible for issuing and authenticating digital certificates. This enables all senders and recipients of electronic documents to be identified and verified using EU-qualified certificates. Universal acceptance of digital signatures can only become a reality via the application of a common standard.
Combining this with a specially designed private network means users can set different levels of access so that while a secretary might be able to send and receive documents on behalf of the solicitor, they are unable to open the documents themselves. Only the solicitor in possession of the specific digital identity can gain access to such documents and is therefore the only person capable of initiating changes.
Businesses are already taking advantage of the true interactivity of digital technology, For instance the use of web-cams can allow delegates to attend or even speak at a conference, without having to leave their desks. The legal profession must adopt a similar approach and begin to use technology within legal transactions. The vulnerability of the internet means that it is unlikely that we should expect or even demand an online solution, but the creation of a private network is likely to become the standard. As the Law Society continues to try and introduce solicitors to the idea that they can work without the need to generate mountains of paperwork, the uptake of e-conveyancing will prove to be the first step in this process.
Alistair Murray is managing director of APX.