The Necessity of Digital Signatures in the Legal Departments

DSC relies on the electronic configuration of a physically-based document to record personal data and information in a digital format, which is possible if signed by the signatory or the sender. This ensures the security and integrity of legal data and allows legal documents to be recorded in a secure cloud technology environment. It brought digital signature to the fore and increased the importance of putting paper in digitized documents.

Law firms are looking for modern tools and advanced management systems equipped with the necessary technical support functions to adapt legal agreements, contracts, or legal documents with safety and security measures to their legal compliance work without problems.

Important Points for Discussion:-

1) Cybersecurity to legal documents against attacks & spam

What is more threatening in any legal aspect of recording client data and information in physical paper-based format? Obviously, It is the security aspect of legal data which first comes into our consideration.

Law firms have always been targeted by cybercriminals, unethical hackers, financially motivated gangs, or some malware. Digital Signature Certificates are a more relevant step in order to provide cybersecurity to legal possessions. This is done by keeping private and public keys in order to encrypt and decrypt the signing process to maintain the originality and probity of the recorded legal data.

Here is the case of London law firm Gately(source) whose data has been breached by a known external source and they have traced the source and deleted all the stolen data. But in spite of giving this assurance, Gately lost 8% of its market share value within the hours of its announcement. DSC can reduce the risk of cyber threats to legal documents and elevate the legal workflow with proficient management in less time.

2) Digital Signature will expand the document’s admissibility

Digital Signature Certificates ensure the originality and efficacy of the documents. This can be easily permitted in varied legal procedures to support the legal authenticity and probity of the client data. DSCs provide legal non-repudiation support to the client in the court of law, under the IT Act 2000, Government of India. DSC provides a more accessible method to bulk signer documents, transactions, and the availability of various services on the Internet. Any legal firm can obtain the maximum benefits by using Digital signatures in all their signing processes of documents. This would be validated and legitimate before the law.

3) Legal industry paper case study

Advances in legal procedures and activities have increased the use of paper by law firms. Lawyers use a lot of paper to document clients’ documents and legal prospects in paper files.

Not only is this catastrophic for the environment, but it also increases the many risks of document tampering, tampering with recorded legal data, or needless flow of data to unintentional or inauthentic individuals.

Here is a study of legal firms which use millions of paper sheets in a year for legal prospects. As per the study of IndiaSpend, 48 million papers are used in the Supreme Court for different judicial purposes. 813 million papers are used in the High Courts every year and 11 billion papers are utilized in lower courts each year. The total estimated number of papers used in Indian judiciary systems is 11 billion approximately.

We have come across many studies on paper use in many organizations, companies, NGOs, schools, and colleges. Paper usage is high and we need to find alternatives to paper to address the real need for paper jobs. DSC can benefit law firms to provide a sustainable and usable support system to address the importance of digitization.

This huge load of papers can bewilder the effectiveness of legal processes. This even costs a lot in the cumulative expenditure of papers. Digital Signature is a more relevant and modern technology to assert the idea of digitization of legal works. This ink- paper-based work can be altered through Digital Signature technology which also costs less in comparison to paper-based work.

4) Digital Signatures assist law workers to expedite their legal work

It facilitates the law workers to streamline all legal procedures in a more efficient and faster way by using digital signature technology. A digital signature can be installed in computers, laptops, androids, or MacBooks easily and can be obtained anywhere, anytime where it is required.

Through DSC, A legal worker can sign multiple documents from anywhere, anytime. This provides a fast and steady workflow to all legal procedures and ensures the maximum authenticity and integrity of the legal documents that are signed by using a Digital Signature Certificate. It saves time and resources in order to provide high satisfaction to legal work in minimum time duration and with minimum physical efforts.

Digital signatures are a current requirement for law firms moving from paperwork to digitally supported work. Reducing paper consumption also ensures a healthy environment. Digitization of legal work will also ensure safety and reduce time expenditure. Therefore, the legal profession should focus on a cheaper and more reliable source of document signing, namely i.e. DSC, in order to prevent any misuse of legal proprietary data.