The importance of the digital certificate in consultancies and law firms

Digitalization and digital certificate have become an imminent need in the last months for all types of professionals, such as consultancies and law firms, where they daily manage a large number of documents with personal and fiscal data, etc. and maintain a continuous communication with all types of public organism. For this reason, now more than ever, being in possession of a digital certificate acquires greater value. For this, there are digital platforms such as IvSign that offer a number of advantages such as:

• It allows to accredit the identity of persons and/or companies with full legal validity.
• It facilitates the centralization of documentation to allow real-time control and autonomous management of all employees.
• It allows a nominative and authorized use of employees to access confidential information.
• Avoids the dispersion of certificates and the lack of control of information.

Qualified digital certificate: security guarantee

When working online, we must do it in the safest way to avoid risks associated with identity theft, falsification of documents and a long etcetera. Therefore, we must know that the qualified digital certificate is currently the safest method and the only one comparable to the handwritten signature when performing any type of electronic transaction.

We will remember that the qualified digital certificate is the one issued through a qualified signature creation device (QSCD) by a Qualified Trust Service Provider. Thus, this type of certificate incorporates data that, in addition to verifying the identity of the holder, provide legal validity to those actions that have been carried out with its use. Some of the data it contains are:

• Indication that the certificate has been issued as a qualified electronic signature certificate.
• A set of data that unequivocally represents the qualified Trust Service Provider issuing the qualified certificates, including at least the member state in which such provider is established.
• Start and end date of the certificate’s validity period.
• The advanced electronic signature or advanced electronic seal of the qualified trust service provider.
• Services that can be used to check the validity status of the qualified digital certificate.

The best ally for the legal area

Professionals who focus their work activity on the legal area know firsthand the importance of using tools that provide full legal validity. When dealing daily with private and, therefore, sensitive data and performing highly complex and important procedures for large companies or entities (formalization of acquisitions, mergers between companies, ERTE, etc.), the qualified digital certificate is the best option for this type of procedures.

Thus, in case of making use of this type of certificate to make a qualified signature, it would serve as irrevocable proof in case of legal proceedings because:

• It is comparable to the handwritten signature.
• The evidence provided by the qualified digital certificate is valid without the need to provide additional expert evidence.
• It reverses the burden of proof, being the signer’s responsibility to prove the invalidity of the signature.

The evolution of digitalization forces us to bet on the most secure tools and with greater legal guarantee that are within our reach. And, in the case of law firms and consultancies, this makes even more sense. The main function of any electronic signature platform must be the protection of the transactions with the use of the digital certificate with the support of the Qualified Trust Service Provider.