Digital transformation has made life so much simpler for everyone on the planet, and there’s not a facet of modern life that isn’t improved in some way by technology designed to help us escape our centuries-long reliance on physical paperwork. Despite this, legal document verification doesn’t always keep pace with progress in other industries and contexts, leaving professionals in the field and ordinary people who must interact with it alike in a bit of a bind.
The blame for this lies in a number of specific reasons, so stick around as we drill down into what’s holding back legal document verification and where progress has already been made.
A lack of centralisation
The problem of fragmentation faces all sorts of online systems, and legal operations are no different. Even in places where there are unified ways to legitimise documentation, the lack of a truly global, totally unified ecosystem for this causes consternation and creates a host of administrative headaches.
Take the example of authenticating an official document for use overseas, like a birth certificate or a document asserting power of attorney. An apostille has long been used for this purpose, and digital apostilles are available to catalyse the process of obtaining one and to make its transfer to the relevant authorities more convenient.
The problem here is that not every country recognises apostilles, and even those that do might not accept digital ones (e-apostilles). That’s why working with specialists to expedite the legalisation process and avoid common pitfalls is important. For instance, applying for apostilles in the UK via a specialist is better than facing the time sink and complexity of going directly to the FCDO.
The problem of originality
Aside from the online legal system being fragmented, legal document verification is fundamentally challenging in this context because the distinction between an ‘original’ and a ‘copy’ of a particular piece of paperwork is harder to pin down outside the physical realm. All sorts of clues and clear pieces of evidence apply to a paper document, proving its provenance. When a document gets digitised, or if it originates online in the first place, there’s far more room for mischief.
Even if a third party doesn’t interfere with the metadata in an effort to spoof the date of creation or any other auditable information that might demonstrate that the file is the ‘original’, there’s the possibility that this information might get corrupted by pure bad luck at some point. In either case, the end user will typically be the one who has to prove its authenticity, often by other means that involve going back to tangible paperwork anyway.
These challenges with legal document verification in our increasingly online legal system are not without the possibility of improving the experience and minimising pain points. As mentioned, apostille services do just that. What’s apparent is that the whole sector must be patient, as rushing the pace of the digital switchover might lead to more severe outcomes than those associated with a slower, more fragmented approach.
Photo licensed from Canva by Big Pond Digital Ltd.
