Free2Convey is the first live, available to use and free online conveyancing portal in the UK and is backed by the Legal Software Suppliers Association.

LSSA is the representative body of legal software suppliers and works to promote an increased adoption and use of technology in law firms. As a representative body the LSSA also works to the benefits of its members by lobbying for information and updates that may assist in a collective development of technology in order to meet mandatory regulations and requirements which in turn percolates down to the law firms using each individual suppliers system. The LSSA also operates a Code of Conduct that members adhere to providing peace of mind to law firms buying software from LSSA members.

The need for a conveyancing portal

In representing the majority of Legal Software Suppliers in the UK, LSSA members were facing questions from both their customers and potential customers in regards to Veyo (the Law Society’s attempt at an online conveyancing portal). The issue was that law firms had heard about Veyo and seen the publicity but were confused as to when it would be released, what it would do and how it would work, if at all, with their existing case management systems. This was a frustration that LSSA members shared. To address this uncertainty and negativity around legal software in general it was decided that the solution was for an alternative conveyancing portal to be developed and released that would provide this functionality to conveyancers. As a result Pracctice Limited (who provide the Osprey Legal Cloud) developed Free2Convey as an alternative to Veyo and to avoid all the issues that we as suppliers were all facing.
Free2Convey is indeed free to use and therefore removes a big barrier to using the system. And, as it says on our website, “Now and always, no set up costs, no licence costs and no transactional costs … it’s free!”

Another important feature of Free2Convey is its integration with existing Case Management Systems. As Free2Convey is an LSSA backed initiative and therefore supported by the majority of Case Management Suppliers in the market there is every chance that it can be integrated into a firm’s existing case management system without difficulty.

Firms who do not have a Case Management system can still use Free2Convey as a standalone application but integration is of course the most efficient method. The system can thus be used by all firms and will provide a comprehensive chain view to all of those doing so.

Security

In order to operate at the highest levels of security, resilience and redundancy, Free2Convey is operated on privately owned, multi tenanted datacentres, based in the UK and mirrored in real time across multiple locations. Nothing is outsourced or held on datacentres outside of the UK.

Our datacentres are operated at the optimum levels of security, and as a belt and braces approach are monitored 24 hours, 7 days a week by our security experts. We have been providing web-based security to thousands of individual lawyers for over 12 years now and are experts in the field.

Other facilities

As well as a Conveyancing Chain view that allows all parties in a Chain to view the status of each party in that Chain, Free2Convey also includes a Secure Online Virtual Deal Room and we are currently working on both a Secure email provision and Trusted F2C Community.

The secure community will be based on data from various third parties that has been verified being uploaded to Free2Convey. This means that when you are dealing with a party in a Chain you can be assured that the details you see have been verified by one or more organisations that have shared this information with us in order to create a secure community and make the Conveyancing process less open to fraud. To further protect firms we also offer full integration with Lawyer Checker through the Free2Convey service.

Where we go now

We have performed live demonstrations of the software at a number of events and seminars around the country over the past 6 months, Free2Convey is live and released and currently being used in Beta test at a number of Conveyancing firms ahead of our official launch on 5th February 2015, when we expect integration to have been completed by individual Case Management suppliers.

A list of suppliers supporting and integrating with Free2Convey can be found on the Free2Convey website and is also shown graphically above.

Although rumours had been circulating for some time, the recent news about the Veyo project ceasing to continue did come as some surprise to us. We have always believed that healthy competition achieves the best results in any software development market and certainly this applies to legal software. We have always agreed with the premise of Veyo and of course believe that a Conveyancing Chain View will benefit Conveyancers.

The addition of a Secure Deal Room, Secure email and a Trusted e-Community can only further improve this benefit.

In their statement announcing the discontinuation of veyo, Legal Practice Technologies (set up as a joint venture between the Law Society and software developer Mastek to provide Veyo) stated the reason for the decision to wind up the project up was because new providers have entered the market pledging free products, mentioning Free2Convey by name and welcoming this development.

Perhaps this is the green light for us, the legal profession and the Law Society and to establish Free2Convey as the central conveyancing portal to meet the needs of all stakeholders in property transactions in the UK.

Matthew Lancaster is a Director of Pracctice Limited, who provide the Osprey Legal Cloud. Pracctice are the developers of Free2Convey. Matthew is currently Chairman of the Legal Software Suppliers Association. Email mattl@pracctice.net. Twitter @LSSAtweet.