Security has always been critical when it comes to the delivery of legal documents. Durban-based Lawyer Access Web (L@W) has taken the problem to a virtual realm that translates into increased speed of delivery and a reduction in cost.
L@W says it offers companies a cost-effective way of delivering security-sensitive documents in a fracture of the time, at almost one-hundredth the cost. Using virtual private network technology supplied by OmniLink, L@W allows firms of attorneys to deliver information-sensitive documents, such as court appeals, via a secure platform.
Trevor Coppen, founder and MD of L@W, says his company is not trying to undermine the legal system, but has afforded firms the ability to deliver their documents quickly and cheaply. The costs involved are minimal; a flat rate of R50 per membership and R80 for dial-up linkage to the network per month is charged. A sliding scale for document delivery is charged starting at R1 for the first 1 000 documents. (Ordinarily, firms pay in the order of R100 per document.)
The independent third-party server resident in Midrand, uses GPS to monitor time and date which is audited every hour and a journal is printed out every five minutes. This means there can be no dispute about the legality of deliveries. L@W also provides an arbitration facility.
The documents are encrypted on the sender`s side and routed through the third server and re-encrypted on the receiver`s side. Subscribers will be issued with digital IDs through the Verisign Public Key Infrastructure, which is licensed to Comparex subsidiary South African Certification Authority, and smart cards will be given to members to access L@W networks.
The management of L@W is negotiating with all the attorneys involved with Standard Bank to facilitate the document transference between firms. Coppen says that once the legal network is up and running, he will be looking at the financial and architectural industries to apply a similar network.
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