The Auckland District Law Society has added digital signing to its WebForms platform.
The service is launched by the ADLS through a partnership with Secured Signing, a Kiwi-operated cloud-based digital signing technology provider.
WebForms, which lets users create many of the most widely used legal forms in New Zealand online, is used by more than 1,000 law firms. It has more than 100 templates, including the agreement for sale and purchase of real estate form and the commercial deed of lease form.
The ADLS invested in the new technology to ensure practitioners are well-equipped with the tools they need to best serve clients, the organisation said. The new service comes with features such as the option for real-time online verification of identity, a signing log that enables audit of the signing process, digital certification that seals the document and its signatures, the ability to digitally witness a signature, and the ability to upload non-ADLS documents to the platform for digital signing.
The new service will bring a new level of efficiency t the lawyer-client relationship, the ADLS said.
“As a practising lawyer, I know meeting clients face-to-face will always be important. But as people’s lives become busier and traffic gets heavier, digital signing will mean increasing efficiency for the document signing process, more convenience and also cost effectiveness,” said Joanna Pidgeon, ADLS president. “Documents no longer have to be couriered across town or to different parts of the country for signing – it can be done anywhere, at any time, on any internet-connected device including mobile. Not only does this speed up the process; importantly, it provides a practical solution.”
The ADLS will soon launch a comprehensive education programme, which includes a video and an online user guide, a practice notes and protocols document, and one-on-one demonstrations to law firms.
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