Legal technology platform Legalito, which has predominantly focused on managing pre-contract enquiries between conveyancing firms to date, has announced it is introducing a new document review element to its offering.
Legalito was launched by Peter Ambrose, Managing Director of conveyancing ABS The Partnership, borne out of his frustrations in managing the lengthening enquiries process. According to research conducted in his own firm over 75% of the time spent by lawyers in the home buying process is on managing pre-contract enquiries. He says one of the key challenges to previous software is the need for all parties to be using the same platform to benefit; but not a problem with Legalito as lawyers can now process replies to enquiries from the other side, whether or not they use the platform. As a result the software has seen over 200,000 enquiries processed.
The next phase, a new Smart Documents and Smart Reports functionality, will introduce the ability to analyse all the documents in a case and identify which issues may require further investigation.
“As property lawyers ourselves, we recognise the pressures that firms are under, especially when it comes to compliance and risk. For example, when clients are getting a mortgage for their purchase, especially when buying a flat, we spend hours ensuring the lease meets their lender’s requirements. That’s why we developed Smart Documents and Smart Reports which produces a report in minutes that shows whether the lease is compliant or not.”
said Ambrose. He adds he is using his own experiences running a conveyancing firm to build software that ‘addresses real problems in conveyancing’; and with 2500 users on the Legalito platform, can demonstrate uptake.
“Even with our experience of the amazing reaction to our Smart Enquiries, we’ve been caught off guard by the response from expert lawyers. When conveyancers with over 30 years’ experience actually clap you after a demonstration, you know you’ve built something special. We’re beyond excited about the difference it’s going to make to the lives of conveyancers and the impact this should have on transaction times.”
Ambrose concludes the software is designed to help firms deal with the ever-increasing risk in buying and selling property and the well-documented exodus of experienced conveyancers. Smart Documents and Smart Reports will be available to a selected number of approved law firms, initially free of charge during the launch period. After this, it will use the standard Legalito, pay-to-use approach, with pricing to be announced this month.
