Metrofile Holdings Limited, a JSE listed company today, 3 March 2016, announced the 40% acquisition of Litigator, a cloud based litigation platform. Litigator, which will now trade as a Metrofile group company, provides electronic serving, issuing and filing of litigation documents, advanced electronic signatures and secure storage of litigation documents.
Mark McGowan, Metrofile Holdings Limited Chief Financial Officer says that with this procurement Metrofile can now move beyond its existing service offering within the legal industry.
“While we still offer services such as secure document storage and electronic filing, this acquisition enables us to provide our clients with access to the latest, innovative cloud based legal software, which will drastically decrease the time spent on logistics.”
Bruce Henderson, Managing Director at Litigator, says the platform gives lawyers the ability to use technology to serve, issue and file documents at court, instead of physically having to deliver the documents to opponents and to court.
“The effect is substantial savings on time and costs generally associated with standard logistical processes. Firms offering debt collection services and dealing with issuing high volumes of summonses on a daily basis will increase efficiencies and cost savings on a massive scale.”
He explains that the process is made possible by the inclusion of Advanced Electronic Signatures (AES) into the platform and that Litigator facilitates the issuing of the AES in line with the provisions of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECT Act).
“These signatures act as an alternative to handwritten signatures and provide additional security to the signed document that will maintain its integrity and protect it from being manipulated. The beauty is that the signature affixed to the document can be verified by simply clicking on it and viewing the details and credentials of the signatory.”
Henderson adds that attorneys making use of the system have the peace of mind that all documents uploaded, served or filed via the platform will be maintained on the platform and be available for viewing, downloading or printing when required.
“This reduces the concern around having original documents misplaced, lost or stolen.”
In addition, Henderson points out that the Litigator system allows legal practitioners to electronically collate litigation documentation into categorised bundles through its patented Index and Pagination functionality.
“This functionality simplifies and speeds up an essential but arduous task that all attorneys have to deal with on a day to day basis.”
“We are confident that this acquisition will enable Metrofile to provide a wider product range to the legal industry and is another building block in our strategy to provide our clients with physical and cloud based cradle to grave document management solutions,” concludes McGowan.
Article supplied courtesy of Biznis Africa
