How can conveyancing regulation keep up with technology?

How can conveyancing regulation keep up with technology?

As the conveyancing landscape continues to evolve with the rapid technological changes, regulatory bodies are required to adapt at an increasing pace. This was the main topic discussed during a recent Legal Futures roundtable, in conjunction with the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.

Focussing on the future of the conveyancing industry as well as observing its present state, the gathering of industry experts considered a possible regulatory framework which would be flexible enough to account for all potential market changes. Given the speed at which technology is changing the face of the market, this proved difficult; as with all regulation, it can be tricky to keep pace with what the market demands.

The experts who took part in the roundtable were from all branches of the industry, providing a more complete picture of how regulation plays its part in the new era of digital conveyancing.

Initially, the group looked at the current state of the market, looking at how digitisation is shaping the industry and the need for high street firms to embrace it.

Denying the presence of any market decline was the founder of Bold Legal Group, Rob Hailstone. He stated: “I am getting no feedback that there is any drop-off. Everybody seems quite busy and quite happy at the moment. The bigger-volume firms are certainly making inroads. The high street in its own sweet way is trying to fight back, but it is not very likely. They need to embrace technology more, hence meetings like this, although most of them are worried about cybercrime and fraud.”

Commenting on the relatively small portion that conveyancing has within the legal market was Eddie Goldsmith. The partner at Goldsmith Williams said that it had remained a “cottage industry”, stating “Even though the big firms are getting bigger, it is still a very small percentage of the overall percentage of the overall market. The biggest one is 3%.”

Another key issue in the current market was brought up by Mark Montgomery. The Customer Strategy and Marketing Director at My Home Move highlighted the risk of fraud within conveyancing, as well as considering how changes in other industries could impact conveyancing.

“It is about what is reasonable. At the moment the test of some of these protections is, ‘Am I acting reasonably as a lawyer?’ If it is reasonable for all of the high street banks to have voice biometrics within the next couple of years, where do those sorts of technologies sit in our sector? How do we regulate for the fact that some firms will be able to invest in that kind of technology and others may not?”

Following on from this, the next topic discussed was in relation to consumer protection. Highlighting that this was, and has always been a high priority was Teresa Perchard.  The Consumer affairs and regulation expert from the CLC also considered the difficulties in regulating the industry should a computer take over or contribute to the services provided by the conveyancer. She highlighted the potential for a balance to be drawn, utilising the skills of both entities; whilst the human could be tasked with delivering people skills, the machine could ensure that compliance is consistently maintained.

“What is interesting about this topic is how a system of regulating legal services, which is about establishing the knowledge and competence of individuals, should operate when it is not an individual that is providing a service, but the combination of the consumer together with an app. Do you take the same approach and say that all apps must suitably prove their competence to do the job? That is one way of looking at it, particularly if we go down the route of the market beginning to operate in a way that financial advice has in the US, where you end up with cyborg advice with a mixture of machines and people. The people are focused on the things where you really need a person, and everybody is helped by a machine that sifts the dots quickly, ensures consistency and does compliance checks, record-keeping and things like that.

“At the moment I would say consumers are well protected, but the approach of regulation is about regulating people at the moment. It is important that regulation keeps pace with how things are actually done and is not stuck in the 1850s, making people use quill pens forever more when that is not the way that consumers want to do business either.”

Chief Executive of the CLC, Sheila Kumar, also drew attention to the prominence of risks targeting the industry rather than internal issues. She stated that this is the main benefit of embracing technology, as well as highlighting a need for regulation to be proactive in its response.

Throughout the report, this message was consistent; as opposed to reacting in response to market changes, the regulator is looking to shift with the times, adapting to ensure it is prepared for the changes that technology brings.

The full Legal Futures report can be accessed here.

Georgia Owen

Georgia is the Content Executive and will be your primary contact when submitting your latest news. While studying for an LLB at the University of Liverpool, Georgia gained experience working within retail, as well as social media management. She later went on to work for a local newspaper, before starting at Today’s Conveyancer.

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