Firm warns of e-conveyancing fraud threat

SECURITY: laws allowing solicitors to sign documents electronically create risk, predicts Halliwell Landau

A north-west based law firm has set up a working party to lobby the government over its plans to push forward e-conveyancing, amid fears that it will create a breeding ground for fraud.

Halliwell Landau's property department made the move after it hosted a seminar examining the potential impact of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 and the Law of Property (Electronic Communications Order) 2001, which were designed to aid the transition to paperless office environments.

Speaking at the conference, the firm's best practice property solicitor Alan Riley highlighted in particular worries about the use of electronic signatures.He said clients are currently protected by the fact that deeds must be signed in the presence of a witness, a process which can be abandoned if lawyers can sign documents electronically as agents under the new laws.'It is envisaged that solicitors who have started signing electronically for their clients will continue to do so, in the same way that solicitors who exchange contracts by telephone continue to do so today,' he said.

'This creates a risk of fraud'.Mr Riley called for measures to ensure 'security and integrity' in e-business.Nicholas Bohm, chairman of the Law Society's e-commerce working party, agreed that the Act and order did not contain enough powers to combat fraud, and welcomed Halliwell Landau raising the issue.

But he added that the laws had only been intended as a stop-gap until primary legislation was introduced in the form of the Land Registration Bill, which received its second reading last week.

'You can't blame the Lord Chancellor's Department because it thought primary legislation would take ages, but it has been introduced earlier than expected and that is what we should all now be focusing on,' Mr Bohm said.

Meanwhile, secure e-commerce specialists Trustis - which is part-owned by City law firm Hobson Audley - has launched a service for firms which want to issue digital certificates without undertaking the process in-house.'Certificate factory' follows on from the company's e-mail security system, which also works using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology, with the technology only accessible by a keyholder with a recognised electronic signature.Chris Swinbank, managing director of Trustis, said the service was a step forward in the 'maturing' market for digital certificates.Paula Rohan