Communications: Law Society demands amendment to the Company Law Reform Bill

The Law Society has called for the House of Lords to amend the Company Law Reform Bill so that e-mails and faxes are legally classified as business letters.


In a submission by the company law committee, the Society has called for business letters to be redefined as being either hard copy or electronic for the purposes of disclosure requirements.


A spokesman for the Society said: 'The Law Society has been pressing the Department of Trade & Industry for years for a definitive statement on whether an electronic communication constitutes a business letter for the purposes of the Business Names Act 1985. The same information about a company should be available whether communication is on paper or electronic. A simple amendment to the Bill would achieve this and company law would reflect modern business practice as a result.'


Currently wending its way through the Lords, the Company Law Reform Bill will repeal the Business Names Act 1985 and incorporate elements of it as necessary, including the disclosure requirements on business documents.


The amendment, if adopted by the Lords, should formalise the standing of e-mails and lend more weight to the argument that e-mail will become the normal form of written communication with law firms. Though with larger firms this is already the case, smaller firms can sometimes still see e-mail as being 'informal' or not a 'proper' letter.


According to the committee, the change should clear up a niggling problem and not cause firms undue upset. For formal communication, it is currently necessary to list a company's address and list of partners (if fewer than 21 partners) on a letterhead; the same will be required on faxes and e-mails if the Lords accept the amendment.


The move should, say those involved, simply mean putting together a more formal and compliant e-mail 'signature' or letterhead. Where this might have to appear on an e-mail is unclear, but unlike the clause relating to displaying addresses, partner names need only be displayed 'in legible characters'. This should mean that changes can be effected by changing existing e-mail signatures.