How video-signature, blockchain and chatbots will impact the notary?

During the 11th notary meeting of Ile-de-France, Luc Thomas, notary in the Hauts-de-Seine has selected 3 technologies that will impact the notariat: the video-signature of the authentic act, the blockchain and chatbots .

he 11th Ile-de-France notarial meeting, organized on April 18, 2017 in Paris by the intermaster association of students of notarial law (see The Daily of April 27, 2017), highlighted the impacts of the digital revolution on the notary practice. Luc Thomas, notary in Chaville (Hauts-de-Seine), has selected three subjects at the heart of the ongoing technological change.

The video signature

"The notarial deed on electronic support is today commonly practiced within the notary. The Higher Council of Notaries (CSN) is currently promoting the broadcast of videoconferencing which allows to connect different people through screens. The video signature should follow. In concrete terms, clients and notaries will be in contact via videoconference. Authentic deeds on electronic media will then be exchanged for signature. In practice, it is increasingly difficult to gather customers at a notary, gather all stakeholders for an appointment in one place. It is necessary to find time, to move, to face the problems of circulation in big conurbations or periphery, in Paris in particular. Clients and notaries share the feeling of wasting time. Customers have prior knowledge, through the exchange of documents, what their file contains. The appointment simply materializes their willingness to sign an act. For them, there is not much going on during the signing. It is just as difficult to bring business leaders and local government officials to the offices because they are used to being advised in their offices. All professionals and service providers who work with them know it's up to them to move, not the other way around. This new technology will change the practice. With video-signing, it will be easier to bring customers, regardless of their profiles or constraints, 5 minutes from their home or workplace. "

The blockchain

"To summarize, this is a transaction or transaction materialized by computer so that its reliability is associated with a validation by a number of operators who each have the opportunity to consider the operation in question as admissible. Once validated, the transaction is deemed reliable, stored and recorded on a large number of computers. Several servers hold and store the same information that is then parceled out. To see the reality of the operation, we assemble a puzzle of elements (on this question, see also The Daily of April 13, 2016).

The promoters of the blockchain claim that it will replace the notary because there will be no need to pay an intermediary to guarantee the validity of a transaction and ensure that it can be carried out. No need for notaries, for example, to carry out the cadastral checks or to keep the authentic deeds that attest to the transactions that have taken place. These developers are also seeing the advent of technology that will speed up transactions and simplify operations. The blockchain will reduce the steps because it will be enough to have computers bringing back and validating the good information so that the operations are instantly realized.

Is this promise realistic? In terms of information gathering, one can indeed think that it is possible to collect and certify information other than through notaries. However, in the immediate future, only the notary knows what information to gather for the successful completion of a transaction. It would be simple if everything was predictable. Alas, everything does not always happen as planned. There may be anomalies, a seller who changes his mind, a property transformed without authorization, a municipality that exercises its right of pre-emption, a title of property subject to legal action, etc. So many unpredictable events. Can these hazards be materialized by blockchain? Will it allow the registration of the transaction in case of cancellation or pre-emption? It's hard to conceive for the moment.

This does not mean losing interest. If the blockchain develops, it will compete with authentic acts. The day it will allow secure transactions to be considered, it will have to be able to use them. "

Chatbots

"This barbaric name (chat for messaging and bot for robots) refers to conversational agents, that is, programs or scripts that interact with an operator or perform operations in an automated and sequential manner. They are already present in smartphones (for example Siri in mobile devices under iOS system) and make it easy to search for information, consult a calendar, send an email to a contact, etc. Messaging systems are becoming more and more important. We discuss with a robot that responds to a certain extent beyond which we must consult a helpdesk.

With artificial intelligence and big data (access to a mass of information), chatbots will be able to search for more and more complex information and answer the simplest questions without human intervention. Chatbots will impact the profession because they will allow notaries not to have to request documents in the files (access to cadastral elements for example) and to automate this step. The robot will constitute the file by collecting all the documents necessary for the signature. The role of the notary will evolve. He will have to refocus his activity on the added value of consulting and customer service. "

In conclusion

"These perspectives are to be taken into account and lead to questions about how they should be integrated into professional practice. It is hoped that the CSN and the different service providers will develop these applications for notaries to use them. Technologies evolve very quickly.

Nothing prevents notaries from using the technological tools already available to the general public. It is up to each notary to ask in what context he can make use of it in the office or his daily activity. The risk is that competing professionals will assimilate them and that customers interested in these applications will have to turn to others. Fortunately, companies are developing and now offer the notariat scanning tools such as MyNotary (see The Daily of February 23, 2017) or Fox Not. "