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I think we should all step back and look at the comments on this article and question our sanity. We may deplore the abilities of the conveyancing factories, but the fact is a lot of what they say makes good sense. Take just one point; the suggestion that a property should have an individual property log book, which could be stored digitally, available online. It could hold all those building regulation approvals, plans, planning permissions, s106 agreements, landlords consents etc, which are certainly the bane of my life. They would be available for anyone to inspect, when required for a conveyancing transaction. I spend far too much time trying to track down consents, arguing with clients and other solicitors about who should find and pay for documents (and explaining to clueless estate agents who are just trying to get exchange so they can get their bonus). We should have the ability to have a simple digital exchange of information. Seller's solicitors download all their replies to enquiries and associated documents to a digital store, which are available to the buyers solicitors. Far too often there is tit for tat arguing between solicitors, inflamed by the agents, about what has been provided and what is outstanding. Emails are mislaid, deleted by mistake, go into spam, all giving us the chance to say, "it's not my fault guv, I sent it all last week"..."it didn't arrive". Etc. This technology is not new, and is in use daily for large commercial transactions. It should be available to all conveyancers.
I could say far more, but we must realise that the client doesn't care who does the work, or how qualified we are, it is about service. Technology can help enormously.