THE bad blood between Victoria's lawyers and the state's conveyancers has just about gone far enough.
At the very least, this antipathy appears to be one of the factors behind the possible boycott by solicitors of Victoria's new system of electronic conveyancing.
That system, the first in the nation, is expected to lead to significant cost savings for everyone who buys and sells property. It deserves to be supported by lawyers.
If solicitors withdraw from the new system, it will have two possible consequences.
In the short term, it will hurt consumers of legal services. Those who choose to leave their conveyancing work with solicitors will be forced to use traditional paper-based conveyancing. And thanks to the Victorian Government, the cost of that traditional service is about to rise.
In the long-term, a boycott will almost certainly backfire.
When South Australia invented the system of Torrens title, that state's solicitors reacted in much the same way and boycotted the new-fangled system.
They favoured the old-system form of title that, when viewed objectively, is nothing but a make-work scheme for the legally trained.
That left a lucrative gap in the market. The result: South Australia is now one of the greatest strong-holds for non-lawyer conveyancers.
If Victoria's solicitors want to achieve the same outcome, they should go right ahead. The conveyancers will steal their lunch.
Chris Merritt | October 12, 2007
Business Australian
I agree with Chris' conclusion, and the comment about lawyers antipathy, but the quotation about a possible lawyer's boycott is not supported by any direct quotation.
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