We're on the home straight

Winner of the grand national electronic conveyancing cup is ....

NECS may well be heading into the home straight, but it would appear the rest of the horses are still not even on the track or only just heading into the starting gates.

The State Governments are still arguing do we enter no duplicate title or do we bet on the rising star being the xml title search?

The Commonwealth Government says they are putting up the prize money but at 100 to 1 no one takes them seriously.

Lawyers are nowhere to be seen. They're still riding on faxes with a copy in the mail. Hardly to be seen is scan and email.

The Banks should be riding on collaborative solutions but they appear to have entered their pony into the Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes or was that Bangalore?

With NECS heading into the home straight, it is really looking like a one horse race.

Like any memorable Melbourne Cup race (think phar lap 1930, jean shrimpton 1965, damien oliver 2002, makybe diva 3 back to back wins) you need all the horses in the starting gates at the same time and a close finish.

Its no point watching NECS heading up the home straight for an uncontested win. If unattended settlements is the finish line, everyone has to start getting serious.

Training starts at 4am and here are the tasks -

State Governments
Abolish the duplicate certificate of title (or at least publicly state their position on the issue)
Introduce a standardised XML Title Search

Lawyers and Conveyancers
Start using scanning technologies

Banks
Introduce and use collaborative web 2.0 solutions in conjunction with conveyancing practitioners, valuers and mortgage insurers. If banks need convincing on the merits of collarboration, a recent quote from New York Times interview with John T. Chambers, chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems is on the mark. Q. What’s changed in the last few years? A. Big time, the importance of collaboration. Big time, people who have teamwork skills, and their use of technology. If they’re not collaborative, if they aren’t naturally inclined toward collaboration and teamwork, if they are uncomfortable with using technology to make that happen both within Cisco and in their own life, they’re probably not going to fit in here.

The reality is that old ways of conveyancing will eventually die. However, lawyers and conveyancers will move at different speeds, so industry and government should be focused on matters that will still value the old but transition them to the new. There has to be a transition from old paper technologies which have been in use in the current form more or less for the past 150 years and probably for the next 10 plus years. This means incremental changes which we have already seen such as the change from paper searches to online title searches.

Back to the racing analogy, we know where finish line is and that is unattended settlements. This is not a short sprint, but like the Melbourne Cup the race covers a distance of 3,200 metres. Just to qualify for the Melbourne Cup there are a number of lead-up races which I will cover in future newsletters.

247legal August Newsletter