Registered mail over the Internet?

A US company, GProof, claims to have developed a system for secure e-mail with evidence of delivery. The concept is not new - Critical Path have had a similar concept for some time and, allowing for brain fade over the years, this author remembers a similar concept being demonstrated in the early 1990s. Certainly, an effective inter law-firm system was available in the UK in the early 1990s using the now defunct LINK or Lawyers' Information Network.

The GProof system requires a sender to lodge the mail with a secure host and when the recipient collects it, the sender is told. But there is, of course, no evidence of delivery if the recipient does not visit the GProof website and collect the mail.

As a means of ensuring service of legal or time sensitive documents, then, such systems are a long way from replacing hand delivery where, if all else fails, the notice can be nailed to the door.