No vuvuzela for mandatory electronic filing

Trying to keep my level of excitement at fever pitch between World Cup matches, I naturally turned to the electric prose of the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, which was recently introduced before the provincial legislature. Thrill seekers will already know that it seeks to expand the gambit of the electronic filing of documents and the land title office.

We, at GreenWay, have fully embraced electronic filing over the past several years as it is fast, easy and best of all, paperless. In the bad old days of manually filing paper documents, one always had to factor in the travel time required to get the documents to the registry office. For more remote locations that travel time could be measured in days rather than hours.

I have many fond memories of standing in a slow-moving line at the New Westminster land title office, and even fonder memories of standing in the freezing pre-dawn mist, with document packages ready to be delivered into the tender mercies of a passing Greyhound bus bound for the Kamloops or Prince George Land Registry offices.

These new amendments will allow us to file even more documents electronically, which will hopefully result in less wear and tear on the staff and possibly even some cost savings for our clients. Unfortunately, these amendments also pave the way for mandatory electronic filing.

While power users of the system have flocked to the electronic filing regime, we believe it is important to recognize that individuals also use the system and can only do so effectively by using the time-honoured manual filing of originally signed documents. Individuals do not have the requisite digital signatures, passwords and BC online accounts to enable them to file electronically. Mandatory electronic filing will force everyone to use a lawyer or notary, regardless of how simple the transaction.

Our long time registry agents, West Coast Title Search, have mounted a strong campaign against mandatory electronic filing. They make the excellent point that even amongst professionals, a majority of lawyers and notaries still use manual filing. Many law firms, whose principal practice is in other areas, are only occasional users of the land title system and prefer the simplicity of manual filing.

We strongly support West Coast Title Search in their opposition to these amendments.

And now back to football.