Society warns that paperless offices will help fraudsters

Proposals aimed at turning conveyancing departments into 'paperless offices' are almost certain to fall flat unless the government faces up to worries about security, the Law Society warned this week.In its response to a Lord Chancellor's Department's consultation, the Society backed e-conveyancing but said the use of electronic signatures will give hackers the opportunity to wreak havoc - by creating a forged mortgage on a third party's property.'If e-conveyancing is to occur, it has to be accepted that the level of security will be lower than the paper equivalent,' the Society said.It added that the government appeared to have its head buried in sand if it thought that safeguards such as the certification of signatures and the use of 'smart cards' to store private keys were in widespread use.

The Society criticised the consultation for its references to a 'secure Intranet' for conveyancers, saying such a system would be too expensive to create and that so many people would be able to access it that all the security benefits would be lost.Law firms will be reluctant to take the risk of being liable for fraudulent situations, and most will be unable to afford to implement available security systems, the Society said.

'The only solution is for the government to prescribe achievable security measures for conveyancers and to accept liability itself if those measures prove inadequate in any particular case,' it argued.

'Unless the government is prepared to grasp this fundamental responsibility, electronic conveyancing is impossible.'Meanwhile, a joint Law Commission and Land Registry report has criticised the land registration system for being based on the idea that dealing with land will be conducted in paper form.

The laws are bureaucratic and confusing, it argued.It said the situation could be remedied by the Land Registration Bill, which received its second reading last week, claiming it would 'put in place the necessary modern legal framework in which electronic conveyancing could operate to its greatest effect'.Paula Rohan