INFOTECH

LANDLORDS: Tarlo Lyons links with property federation

Tapping into leases

City firm Tarlo Lyons has joined forces with the British Property Federation (BPF) in a venture enabling commercial landlords and tenants to devise their own on-line leasehold agreements.

The service, which went live earlier this month and can be accessed from the BPF Web site, is geared towards parties looking to create short-term leases of up to three years.

The interactive document is written in plain English and allows landlords and tenants to specify terms and conditions and complete the form in minutes.

Tarlos got together with software provider Business Integrity last year to work on an electronic product after the CD-based version of the lease was withdrawn.

It eventually approached BPF with a document which is based on legal automation technology package DealBuilder.

Philip Diamond, Tarlo Lyons's head of commercial property, said it was assessing the market before deciding whether to develop other on-line projects.

'We got involved because the BPF was looking for a new medium for the lease,' he explained.

'But if we develop other documents like this, they will not all be free on the BPF Web site.'

BPF director general Liz Peace said the service aimed to strike a fair balance between parties as well as cut costs and increase efficiency.

'For the tenant, this will mean being able to occupy the premises more quickly, with fewer resources being diverted to lease negotiations,' she said.

'For the landlord, it will mean working to a standard widely recognised as acceptable to the business community, large and small.'

Paula Rohan

Epoch provides key insurance service

Epoch Software has won a three-year contract to provide insurer Royal SunAlliance with software which will enable it to offer direct legal services to its insurance clients.

Royal & SunAlliance's new family legal service - part of its direct financial services arm More Th>n - has taken Epoch's Rapidocs product for an undisclosed seven-figure sum.

Royal & SunAlliance clients can pay 1.50 for the new service each month - as an extension to their home insurance - for a basic package of on-line legal documents, an expert legal advice helpline, and up to 50,000 cover for legal expenses.

More Tha>n will use Rapidocs for the documents service; it enables legal forms to be filled using data collected from clients on computer.

Steve Kingshott, an insurance manager with More Th>n, said the move came in the light of the restrictions on legal aid.

Richard Cohen, a solicitor and chief executive officer at Epoch Software, said the company is in negotiations with several other institutions - including banks, insurers and retailers - which are keen to institute similar client services.

He said: 'In the light of the Law Society's proposed relaxation of rule 4 [which currently prevents employed solicitors from providing services to third parties], I believe that you will see many more such innovations by banks, insurers, retailers and other organisations with mass-market reach providing direct legal services to the public.'

Jeremy Fleming

Top judge sets priorities for court IT cash

A networked IT infrastructure, electronic presentation of evidence (EPE) and video conferencing are top of the priority list when it comes to improving IT in the courts over the next three years, the judge in charge of modernisation has said.

Giving a lecture at Hertfordshire University recently - which was sponsored by local law firm Pictons - Lord Justice Brooke said the next wave of modernisation would begin next month when the results of the government spending review are announced.

Lord Justice Brooke said: 'The immediate priority is to install a networked IT infrastructure into all our Crown Courts and up to 90 of our largest civil court centres.

The next priority is to choose, design and install the applications software.

'With what money is left over in the current spending round, we could also extend the use of EPE and video conferencing.

There are distinct possibilities, too, in digital audio recording.

Trials of this technology are being conducted this year in Crown Courts at Bournemouth, Doncaster and Snaresbrook.'

He said the aim of networking was to divert back-office business to new business centres, linked to the courts by IT, allowing the courts to concentrate on contested actions.

The first business centre will start on a pilot basis in the midlands this autumn, at the same time that the courts hope to start testing new case-management software.

On EPE, Lord Justice Brooke noted that 'tiresomely, each of our major prosecuting authorities use different software, and in due course decisions may have to be made as to whether this is a sensible way of going about things'.

He added that EPE was being introduced in a systematic way.

Nine Crown Courts have been earmarked for trials of EPE: Birmingham, Blackfriars, Bristol, the Old Bailey, Kingston, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Southwark.

'We are now considering the wiring systems for the roll-out of IT infrastructure into all our major courts.

Decisions will soon have to be made as to how many criminal and civil courts will be able to accommodate EPE as a matter of course without special arrangements having to be made.'

While video conferencing is being increasingly used, Lord Justice Brooke did have a warning: 'Experience has shown, however, that unless the equipment is very good, the evidence of a witness over a video link does not have the same immediacy as when the witness gives evidence in court.

'Some criminal judges believe that juries have acquitted in cases where they might well have convicted if they had actually seen the complainant child witness give evidence from the witness-box.

There is no doubt, however, that video technology is here to stay for certain types of young or vulnerable witness, and we must do our best to ensure that the technology used is as good as possible.

He added that next month, there may be a major extension in its use when different forms of vulnerable and intimidated witnesses are permitted to give evidence in a criminal court by video link.

The judge also touched on the Money Claims Online scheme, saying that the next step is to allow defendants to file a defence on-line.