'It's the industrial revolution for conveyancing.

We are working on handlooms but now someone is introducing the spinning jenny.' So says Ian Dunn, a partner in Bristol law firm Cartwrights, who is a small cog in the turning wheel that is set to move conveyancing into the 21st century.Last week, the Law Commission and the Land Registry issued a consultation document which recommended establishing a framework to facilitate electronic conveyancing.

'The eventual goal is to eliminate so far as possible the present three-stage process by which a document is executed, lodged with the registry and then registered.

The only way to achieve this is to provide that the transaction should be executed electronically by registration,' they said.The benefits would include: making conveyancing transactions 'both quicker and substantially cheaper for buyers and sellers, and should reduce the risk of error'; eliminating the problems caused by the 'registration gap', that is the time between execution and registration; and, as a paperless system, 'it should (for example) obviate the need for substantial and costly storage facilities'.

The main problems to address were security, ensuring accuracy and making provision for technology failure, the paper says.In its move towards this, the Land Registry has computerised 92% of the 16.5 million registered titles and, since July 1997, offered direct computer access to the register, a facility that more than 800 subscribers are now using.

Last week it began a pilot electronic system to discharge mortgages with the Stroud & Swindon Building Society.Another major development is the National Land Information Service (NLIS) pilot currently taking place in Bristol with three law firms, Cartwrights, Alsters and JW Ward & Son.

The NLIS aims to give rapid on-line access through the Internet to all the authorities that might need searching for a property purchase.

The bodies linked up to the pilot are: Bristol City Council, Bristol Water, the British Geological Survey, the Coal Authority, Companies House, the Environment Agency, the Highways Agency, the Land Registry, the Lord Chancellor's Department, Ordnance Survey, the Valuation Office and Wessex Water.

The long-term aim is to give every piece of land in the country a unique reference number which can be used to search at every authority.

Mr Dunn says the pilot is 'going well .

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it demonstrates the potential for electronic conveyancing'.

All the authorities, except the city council, are deploying to electronic searches rapidly.

But the fear has to be that electronic conveyancing will diminish or even remove the need for solicitor involvement.

Mr Dunn warns: 'It is difficult to underestimate the change this will make to practice.

Solicitors will need to show that they can add value to transactions, or the work will migrate to lenders.'Law Commissioner Charles Harpum says electronic conveyancing 'won't take away the need for solicitors because there will still be legal problems'.

Edward Nally, chairman of the Law Society's conveyancing and land law committee, adds that, in the NLIS scheme, someone with legal qualifications is needed to interpret the search results.

'I don't see our role disappearing, just easing,' he says.

Mr Nally contends th at while it may be 'attractive for lenders to deal directly [with the registry] and cut out the lawyers', solicitors play a vital role by protecting the transfer of money and other aspects of the process through a 'network of undertakings', a role that should not be underestimated.

'Solicitors add value by acting as a conductor, especially on the transfer of money.

The value of that is often overlooked by people who see it as an easy mechanistic process,' he argues.But even at this early stage, there is evidence that this fear of solicitors being partially cut out is justified.

In the Stroud & Swindon pilot, the electronic message is not sufficient to remove a charge from the register -- an application, coupled with the charge certificate is still required.

However, the message replaces form DS1, a vital stage in removing a charger.

This form is usually sent by the lender to the seller's solicitors, who send it on to the buyer's solicitors, who then pass it to the registry.

The registry says 'receiving a message direct from the lender will reduce delays and help to identify cases where a genuine difficulty exists'.Then there is the question of what effect electronic conveyancing will have on fees.

Both Mr Nally and Mr Dunn reject the assumption that new systems should make land transfer cheaper because domestic conveyancing fees are already at rock bottom levels.

But Mr Harpum predicts costs will go down, while the cost of searches and registration should also be reduced.The changes have to be seen in the light of the government's on-going review of the homebuying process.

Delay, the main problem the review is addressing, is usually laid at the door of solicitors, even though it is a 'creature of various elements', says Mr Nally.

Technology is key to solving this, and Mr Nally says solicitors 'do need to grab hold of the technology issue -- it is vital for the future survival and success of high street practices'.

Technology is also central to the various solicitor property selling initiatives.Mr Nally says it is not yet clear whether 'the whole process will be re-engineered as a result of the review.

But he expresses hope that the government will 'prod' local authorities into improving their performance, perhaps through compulsory turn-around times for searches.

A more likely outcome of the government review is that at the start sellers will have to provide prospective buyers with a pack of information about the property, including searches and perhaps some form of survey.

Mr Nally says the Law Society is already working on how this can best be effected.There are big challenges ahead for conveyancers, especially those on the high street already struggling with increased premiums for the Solicitors Indemnity Fund.

Mr Dunn also throws the competitive challenge of 'factory conveyancers' into the pot, that is the increasing number of large regional law firms able to invest in technology and offer cheap, bulk conveyancing.Mr Nally says the challenge facing the Law Society is to harness the coming change and keep solicitors central to the process.

But while there is a better future of less paper and title transfer by computer, he insists that there are several good points in the current system which should not be thrown away in the rush to embrace technology.However, the real challenge will be ensuring that in conveyancing's industrial revolution, solicitors do not become the Luddites.