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AI: What does it mean for conveyancing? | Orbital Witness

Having explored what artificial intelligence is – and its relevance to the legal sector – in the first iteration of AI: What does it mean for conveyancing?, the focus now shifts to the practical uses of AI in the conveyancing process.

Through the lens of those at the cutting edge of innovation in this area, a clearer view of how AI might influence conveyancing both now and in years to come will emerge.

First up: Orbital Witness.

Who are Orbital Witness?

Orbital Witness is automating property diligence to make property transactions more efficient and transparent for everyone.

After founding the company in 2018, Ed Boulle and Will Pearce began by focusing on property diligence in the commercial arena. They saw that property lawyers were spending a huge amount of time gathering information, wading through thousands of pages on each transaction, and getting funnelled through inefficient reporting processes that clients did not value. They set about to change that and bring property diligence into the 21st century with the help of technology.

Orbital Witness is now trusted by over 2,500 lawyers at many of the top law firms and in-house legal teams from Marks & Spencer to Tesla, and backed by some of the most reputable investors in the property and venture capital industries.

What are the conveyancing-related challenges that Orbital Witness has set out to tackle?

Orbital Witness has now launched in the residential property sector to help law firms and conveyancers that are still recovering from the effects of the last few years tackle the title-checking aspects and challenges associated with leasehold property transactions.

There are a number of factors that have meant that the complexities, risks, and workloads associated with leasehold conveyancing have never been higher, such as new lender requirements, new legislation, and experienced conveyancers leaving the profession.

Orbital Witness’ aim is to ensure leasehold transactions remain viable and profitable for law firms, and efficient and transparent for conveyancers and their clients.

Orbital Witness does this by arming conveyancers with an automated tool that assists with leasehold title checking. This has several benefits:

  • Identifies key issues so that conveyancers can prioritise and take early action for their firm and client
  • Saves time on every case by avoiding trailing through documents to find answers, and soon will allow firms to use the data directly in their CMS and reports
  • Reduces risk of claims with extra reassurance that nothing has been missed (especially helpful for more junior lawyers), whilst transferring some of the risk associated with title checking to Orbital Witness

How is Orbital Witness using AI to overcome those challenges and benefit conveyancers?

Orbital Witness achieves the above with the help of its AI system that checks the lease, the title, lender requirements, and other sources in order to provide answers to 40+ standard conveyancing checks required on any leasehold property transaction, including those required by lenders. The AI system has been carefully and meticulously trained by property lawyers and tested on thousands of leasehold properties.

Orbital Witness’ simple interface allows the conveyancer managing the case to see where in the documents the AI system has found the answers. We voluntarily insure the answers to the same level as conveyancers are required to, which is £2 million in professional indemnity cover, to give added assurance.

In practice, this helps conveyancers to speed up transactions, reduce the risks associated with title checking, and more easily manage the team’s workload.

Watch a benefit of the platform below.

https://www.orbitalwitness.com/

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