Solicitors, the courts, the Land Registry, surveyors and estate agents are all geared up to undertake paperless 'e-business' in cyberspace.

There is just one problem ... how do the two parties participating in a sale or letting sign necessary legal documents when there is no pen or paper involved in the process?

E-conveyancing is fast, cost-effective and much easier for all those involved in property transactions. It eliminates having to trudge around on foot from one office to another to attend multiple appointments, cuts out having to rely on the snail-mail postal system, and speeds up the entire sell-buy procedure.

Most solicitors welcomed the advent of e-conveyancing and have been involved in transforming the way they undertake legal transactions for some years, but until recently they have had to fall back to traditional methods when it came to their clients' signing contracts and other legal forms.

Reverting to the standard slower mail system at exchange of contracts has even caused some transactions to fail at the last post (quite literally) and anything that can prevent that situation arising in the future has to be a good thing.