ESPC Legal maintains a list of solicitors, conveyancers, legal secretaries and legal administrators. This list contains names and details of Solicitors registered with the Law Society of Scotland. However, ESPC Legal does not have a definitive list of all conveyancers, legal secretaries and legal administrators (grouped as conveyancers within the ESPC Legal platform). What does this mean? From time-to-time you … Read More

The Documents widget is where the firm can store documents relating to the prospect and share with the other side (If they are using ESPC Legal). Reduced document types (icons) set When you initially create a case in ESPC Legal you are provided a ‘cut-down’ list of document types (colloquially called icons) until you add: Date of Entry Agreed Price … Read More

To create a letter or document in ESPC Legal select the appropriate icon at the top of the page or from the Tools menu on the left. Creating a Document Once you have selected the ‘Create new Document’ icon, a new window will pop-up. Select a document template from the list of documents you wish to create. Once you have … Read More

Scanning continues to be a pain point for firms using ESPC Legal (or any digital conveyancing platform for that matter). To help simplify the process, we have added QR codes to each transaction which will allow users to scan documents directly into the correct transaction without needing to know the ESPC Legal ID. It will also allow users to scan … Read More

To amend the conveyancing checklist within ESPC Legal, you must first go to the Configuration section, located on the menu bar on the left. You will only have access to the configuration section if you are an administrative user. Within this page there are two widgets, one for ‘Sale Checklist Configuration’ and one for ‘Purchase Checklist Configuration’. To amend a task … Read More

You are able to archive documents from your Sorting Office widget but not fully remove them. When a document is archived it is never fully deleted from the platform, only hidden from view. How to archive a document? Click on the document to be archived – a pop-up will appear with the document information. Click the black ‘Archive Document’ button … Read More

In ESPC Legal you are able to archive your unused or completed transactions. Below is a step by step guide of how to archive trasnaction. Step 1: Find and select the archive button on the toolbar at the top right of the transaction or in the drop down on the left-hand side of the screen. Step 2: Head to the … Read More

Note: At ESPC Legal we sometimes call our pre-loaded templates ‘the vanilla styles’, so if that phrase is used you will know the reference. ESPC Legal users are able to amend the pre-loaded styles to read whatever the firm would like them to say. This is in addition to the ability to add your own styles to the system. There … Read More

Stay up to date at every moment with ESPC Legal’s instant notification feature. When the Other Side do something on a transaction you are assigned to, you will receive a notification in the top left hand side of your screen. Much like social media, this allows you to immediately respond or react to whatever’s happening in your transaction. The actions … Read More

This page outlines the information required to allow ESPC Legal to send emails on your behalf, and to help to prevent them from going into your recipient’s spam or junk folder, we need you to update your DNS(1) records with some new TXT records. Typically, the instructions below will be sent to your firm’s IT manager to implement the changes:   ... Read More

The Lender Portals widget contains a series of links to the websites of banks who have kindly made their mortgage deeds available online. This is so that solicitors are not submitting out of date documents to the lenders. Please, if you find any more, let us know and we’ll get them added!

Within your transaction screen, you are able to connect a related transaction to your current one. So for example, if Joseph in the transaction below is selling his property at Merchiston Crescent, but purchasing one at Prestonhall Avenue, you are able to connect the two transactions. This means that if certain things haven’t been completed on one transaction, this system … Read More

The Surveyors widget allows you to add who the surveyor is for a transaction and stores all the information about them that we hold, such as: Their name Branch address Branch generic telephone number Branch generic email address It’s also where ESPC Legal takes the information from when populating documents relating to the surveyor. We update the surveyors details from … Read More

The checklist is a handy list of conveyancing tasks and has been designed to help keep you on track with your transaction. Differing for purchasing and selling transactions, these checklists can be customised to suit your firms practices. A task shown as: Red indicates that the task is overdue Amber is due in the next 7 days; and Green has … Read More

Google Maps widget is a handy tool that allows you to see where the property is located on a map. You are able to zoom in and scroll around the area and when possible, street view will also be provided. NB: Google Maps will take you to the centre of the postcode NOT to the specific property. Unfortunately this is … Read More

Yes you can add your own templates and styles for ESPC Legal to pre-populate with the correct information. However, only Administrators are able to update these templates as they are available to the whole firm. For training on how to add your own templates please contact ESPC to arrange a session. Use the steps below as an aide memoire. Remember … Read More

There are a few places where you can find the functionality to send an email in a transaction. Firstly it is on the toolbar along the top of the page shown as an envelope icon. It is also shown on the Tools tab on the left-hand side of the page. Finally, it can be found by clicking on the email … Read More

The Sorting Office widget is an area within the transaction that uncategorised documents can be held awaiting further direction. The documents in this section support a drag and drop functionality and can be dragged from the Sorting Office widget and dropped into the specific category type in the Documents widget and thus shared with the other side. They can also … Read More

The Transaction Lenders widget allows you to record details of the lender(s) involved in the transaction. It outlines the: name of the lender(s) account number of the transaction; and address if it is provided. This information is used in the auto-population of your documents within ESPC Legal.

This is a handy tool that allows you to create various reports through ESPC Legal. It pulls various different pieces of information from your account in a csv file format to compile a report based on the transactions you are assigned to.

The Transaction Summary is essentially a list of all of the transactions that are assigned to you. This is shown on the Dashboard page. It allows the user to clearly see what is pending completion and what tasks are yet to be done. It can be filtered and searched through for ease of use. The fields that the summary shows … Read More

ESPC Legal gives you the ability to swap between firms should you be a part of or working for more than one legal firm. When you login, you will not have been assigned to a firm, so you must search for and select your firm from the alphabetised list. This will then pull up all the transactions you have been … Read More

Your ESPC Legal transaction reference number is the unique reference which is assigned when you create your transaction. It is usually the digits at the end of the full transaction number that you are shown onscreen. In the case of the image below, the number used would be 18421. However these numbers can be shorter or longer than five digits.

Scanning a document into ESPC Legal is the best way to get a paper document into the system. To do this you will need to have a scanner that is able to scan to email. Go to your scanner and get your document ready, in the ‘To’ field add in the following email address: scans@scans.espclegal.com In the subject line of … Read More

By sending an email with the subject line including #espclegal followed by the transaction reference number (e.g #espclegal-1234), your message and attachments will automatically appear in the Digital File widget of the relevant transaction. You can drag and drop the attachments to the Sorting Office widget to await checking before moving the document to the relevant Document widget or Personal … Read More

This is an important safety feature of ESPC Legal. ESPC Legal already has a very high level of security, however we are aware that some information relating to your client will be particularly sensitive, to accommodate this, we have added an additional layer of security to one of our widgets on the transaction page. The area which offers an additional … Read More

There a few different ways in which the Digital File widget can be updated to store your correspondence. The first, and most intuitive way, is for your email to push through a copy of the emails you receive regarding ESPC Legal, directly into your ESPC Legal inbox. This requires your IT provider to alter a few of the settings within … Read More

The Digital File widget displays emails and other correspondence to or from any contact. Emails sent from ESPC Legal will populate this widget and appear as a sent email. Emails you send and receive in your MS Outlook account that have “#espclegal-ref number” in the subject header will also be placed in this widget. Please ensure your systems have been … Read More

You are not able to permanently delete a duplicated contact however you are able to archive a contact so that it no longer appears on the contact screen. This also means if you require the contact again it can be easily retrieved. Please be aware that ‘Contacts’ in ESPC Legal are ‘Contact Groups’ rather than individual contacts. Example:

If you need to change your direct debit information please get in touch with us at help@espclegal.com or call us on 0131 297 3210.

This is a widget that you can update when you know which firm is acting on the other side of the case. If the other side firm is a single branch firm, the widget will default to that branch. If it is a multi-branch firm you must choose the appropriate branch. You can also add the matter reference of the … Read More

This widget allows users to capture outline details of the case. Information such as the matter reference, agreed price, date of entry, etc. These details can be used when ESPC Legal pre-populates documents.

These are the personal details of the Purchaser. This information is used when ESPC Legal pre-populates documents. If you are acting on behalf of the Seller, you will ONLY be able to amend these details if the other side firm: does not use ESPC Legal; or if they do use ESPC Legal, they have not ‘accepted’ the invite If the … Read More

These are the personal details of the Seller. This information is used when ESPC Legal pre-populates documents. If you are acting on behalf of the Purchaser, you will ONLY be able to amend these details if the other side firm: does not use ESPC Legal; or if they do use ESPC Legal, they have not ‘accepted’ the invite If the … Read More

These are a selection of useful links which relate to the conveyancing process. These will be updated and added to over time. If there is one you would particularly like to add please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will add it in for you.

The Personal Details Vault is a widget that is designed to house all of your client’s personal documents. It has an additional layer of security so as to provide extra protection for the sensitive information within, and to remind you that this information is never shared with the other side. The widget will lock itself down after 5 minutes. Open … Read More

Yes, please do! The contacts page acts as a CRM system for your customers and you are welcome to use it as such. You can add contact notes, add lender details and documents to their Personal Details Vault. Please be aware that ‘Contacts’ in ESPC Legal are ‘Contact Groups’ rather than individual contacts. Example: If you simply added Leigh Smith … Read More

Yes you are able to download a copy of the Activity Log, this can be done by pressing the download icon on the bottom left hand side of the widget. This will export the selected content of the activity log to a PDF document, which can then be downloaded or printed.

An observation is a note or message that you send to the other side. This message will be combined with a task or action you would like them to carry out. This prompts the other side to read/complete/upload a document or request a search. This allows both sides to speed up the transaction process by ensuring each side has done … Read More

This is not a problem! ESPC Legal will still work for you even if the other side of the transaction are not using the ESPC Legal platform. When you create your transaction, you should select the other side as normal. Non-users will receive an invitation to contact us at ESPC to consider using ESPC Legal. You should use ESPC Legal … Read More

A user with Administrative access must activate the new user profile from the Configuration section of the site. They will set up the new user and assign them their access rights, the user will then receive a confirmation email to confirm the account. To add a new user please follow the steps below (images located below): Open ESPC Legal and … Read More

The details of the transaction will remain in ESPC Legal for th period as agreed in the terms and conditions. You will not be charged for an incomplete transaction. You are welcome to Archive the transaction, however there will be a maximum amount of data that you are able to hold on the system without an additional charge. This information … Read More

You are not able to permanently delete a transaction but you are able to archive a transaction. There are two ‘buttons’ to archive a transaction. Firstly, on the transaction page, on the menu on the left hand side there is an option titled ‘Tools’. This feature allows you to archive a transaction. This function is also replicated on the toolbar … Read More

If you are already using ESPC Legal and you ignore a transaction request, any information relating to that case which is added from the other Solicitor, they will need to email you. You are able to take up this transaction at any point

You can upload a document into the: Documents widget Personal Details Vault widget Sorting Office widget Uploading directly to the Documents widget The first way is to click on the icon of the document icon type you wish to upload in the Documents widget. In this example the land certificate. A pop-up box will appear that says ‘Upload Doc’, choose … Read More

You cannot delete a document from the Documents widget, however you can upload a new version of the document.

If you drag an icon out of the Documents widget, it will remove the icon from the section and notify the Other Side if they are using ESPC Legal platform. If you did this by accident, or realise you do actually need to provide that specific document, fear not, you CAN get it back. At the top right hand corner … Read More

A private document is one that isn’t shared with the other side unless you specify that it is a shared document. It is perhaps a letter regarding the document or other relevant documents that are not necessarily officially required, these can be private or not, depending on your selection.

At the top of the transaction screen there is a line of text that reads ‘Missives Concluded?’. If you click on this link, you will see a series of two popups to double check that you are sure you would like to conclude the missives for this transaction. If you are sure, click through these popups and you will have … Read More

There a number of places to make an observation, however the most obvious is from the Observations widget itself. Adding a single observation Scroll down to the Observations widget on the transaction page and press the button that says ‘Add observation’. A pop-up will appear and you can: Choose an Observation from our list of templates, doing so will populate … Read More

You cannot remove an observation, however if you take the observation through the steps of the traffic light system it will go green and thus be completed.

The traffic light system is a system during which an observation changes colour depending on its status. This allows both sides of the transaction to keep on top of one another’s progress. Once the initial observation has been made, it will appear as a red ‘Action Required’ alert on the other side’s transaction page. Once they have then completed the … Read More

Nope! The page responds in real time so the updates to the observations will happen as and when they happen in real life, no need for a page refresh every 10 minutes!

The activity log cannot be amended. This is a full audit trail of any/all activities undertaken on the transaction and as such, you are unable to amend it.

Any user with access to the case file from your side will be able to see the Notepad widget and any notes added to it. The other side will NOT be able to see your Notepad widget. The Notepad widget is essentially just a sticky ‘post-it’ on top of the case file!

To make a note in the Notepad widget, you just need to click on the notepad and begin typing! Then just click the floppy disk icon on the top right and this will save the note. The notepad is just for notes that anyone picking up the case in your absence may need; client’s on holiday, yourself on holiday and … Read More

To upload you must be an Administrator. Go to the configuration section, you will see a widget titled ‘Email Styles’, this widget contains all of the email styles available for your firm to use. At the bottom of this widget there is a button that says ‘Click here to add a new style’, select this button and a dialogue box … Read More

The notification settings can only be changed by an Administrator. If this applies to you, some of these settings can be amended from the Configuration page however we would recommend further training on how to create these settings so please get in touch and we will arrange a meeting with you. Alternatively get in touch with us and we can … Read More

A widget is an individual component of the user interface. The boxes on the transaction page are all separate widgets, these can be moved around and rearranged into any format you would like them to be in. To move a widget just click the top of it and you can drag it around the screen and drop it wherever you … Read More

Oh dear! Don’t worry, we’ll get you back in. All you need to do is click ‘Forgot your password?’ on the login page. This will then send you an email which will contain a unique unguessable link. Click this link and it will prompt you to create a new password.

Provided your firm has authorised remote access and you have access to the internet, you can log into ESPC Legal from home, or from anywhere in the world with your username and password or Smartcard and reader.

To log in using your Smartcard you must have a Smartcard reader. When you open up the website and insert your Smartcard into your smartcard reader, the website will automatically change from a user/password login page to a Smartcard PIN login page. More information on the Law Society Issued Smartcard can be found here.

Once you’ve logged in using either your username/password or your Law Society SmartCard, head to the Menu on the left where you will see a tab entitled ‘Transactions’. Within this tab you will be given the option to create a new Selling or Purchasing transaction, select the applicable type and follow the wizard steps! Then voila, you should have your … Read More

You will be able to log in using your unique username and password sent to you or by using your Law Society Scotland issued Smartcard.