Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
|---|
Ongoing Series on Bright New Ideas for Websites Graham Ross has been a pioneer of the use of computers by lawyers for 20
years, ever since he wrote a program for solicitor accounts which became, after
further commercial development, one of the most successful small systems on
the market - Quill. Since then, he has developed quite a number of innovative
web sites.
TheConveyancingRoom.com is his latest venture, which joins
TheClaimRoom.com, a site for online dispute resolution which has been
operational for about a year. The new site software and structure is available for firms of solicitors to
licence, to enable them to offer a secure environment in which to communicate
and to progress the transaction. Details of the ongoing transaction are available
to the client, the solicitors from both sides, the estate agent, the house builder
and the mortgagee, as appropriate, all of whom can have different levels of
access defined.
Graham Ross writes:
When we began to add communications to the basic blind bidding tool
(I was co-founder of the blind bidding system WeCanSettle.com), our
developers, without my realising it at the time, took the route, wherever they
could, of creating configurable templates and meta strings rather than hard
wired coding, so as to more easily accommodate our constantly developing
requirements.
The result of this "laziness" is that we now have not just a web site for one
particular purpose, but a powerful development tool that enables us to
configure all manner of applications for communication, negotiation, advice and
document uploading/storage - in short, a full virtual office - all capable of being
licensed on a commercial basis.
The system allows for structured message areas and classes of users, with
access to, and use of, each message area controlled by rules regulating the
powers of each class, i.e. write, read only (eg clients reading communications
with third parties) or not see that message area at all (eg internal management
areas). A number of blind bidding boards can be brought onto the system to
enable negotiation to take place on different aspects of any dispute matter.
Documents/templates can be uploaded into the system and a library
maintained.
An added bonus is that the downsides of e-mail - insecurity, virus risk, mis-addressing of email, loss of mail through filing indiscipline etc - are avoided.
Even if the office network takes a full data loss hit, all communications, and
documents, are still available on the secure site. Law Society recommendations
for encryption of client matter e-mail (ignored by the overwhelming majority of
solicitors) are automatically followed. In an emergency, fee earners on the other
side of the world can easily log in to assess a client file problem and take
action.
The flexibility of the system has enabled us to identify markets beyond dispute
handling and conveyancing, eg :-
Graham Ross, Ross & Co. - email g.ross@TheClaimRoom.com.
Back to Contents.
A Solicitor Developing Software for Legal Applications on the Web
Ross & Co.