{"id":2998,"date":"2024-07-02T18:05:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T22:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harringtonlawassociates.com\/?p=2998"},"modified":"2024-07-03T18:27:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T22:27:15","slug":"business-law-electronic-signatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/business-law-electronic-signatures\/","title":{"rendered":"BUSINESS: Are Electronic Signatures Risky?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Clients sometimes ask whether DocuSign and similar apps are a good idea.\u00a0 They want to know if e-signatures are enforceable or if there are risks to signing electronically.<\/h4>\n<p>E-signing technology is becoming more and more prevalent, and there is no denying the convenience.\u00a0 Affixing your signature with a simple tap on your phone screen is a beautiful thing.\u00a0 After all, the alternative is to print the document, sign it, scan, and then email the scanned copy.\u00a0 Sometimes you have to go find witnesses, and, if notarization is required . . . well, now you really got yourself a project.<\/p>\n<p>So, naturally, we would all prefer to e-sign documents.\u00a0 However, the convenience may not be worth it if e-signatures are not enforceable.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Ep. 17 - E-Signing Risky? \/ E-firmas Peligrosas?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Da2CDWgrywI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Legal Analysis<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The legal analysis here is actually the easy part.\u00a0 The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Electronic_Signatures_in_Global_and_National_Commerce_Act\">Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Action<\/a> (ESIGN) has been in place at the federal level for over 20 years.\u00a0 The same is true for the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Uniform_Electronic_Transactions_Act\">Uniform Electronic Transactions Act<\/a> (UETA), which has been adopted at the state level by all but two States.\u00a0 Simply put, the legislation says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>A record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, from a legal point of view, an electronic signature has exactly the same validity as a handwritten signature.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Practical Application<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Here, the analysis gets a bit more interesting.\u00a0 After all, the goal is to <em>bind<\/em> people to the rights and obligations in the agreements they sign.\u00a0 What we really care about is <em><strong>enforceability<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Is it easier for someone to weasel out of a contract with e-signing than it would be with a handwritten signature?\u00a0 The answer to that question turns on how easily the person can say: \u201cHey, that\u2019s not my signature.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the end, what a judge wants to know is whether or not the parties <em>intended<\/em> to be bound by the agreement.\u00a0 Assume for a moment some people might be willing to lie in order to get out of a contract.\u00a0 Shocking, I know, but it could happen.\u00a0 So, now, you have to prove that the person actually meant to sign the contract.\u00a0 How can you do that?<\/p>\n<p>The traditional method of having witnesses and\/or notarization is a pretty iron-clad way of proving that someone voluntarily signed a document.\u00a0 These methods of \u00abacknowledgement\u00bb are still very good evidence nowadays, but they are not as undeniable as they once were.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The reason is that, with software available today, it is not particularly difficult to take a picture of someone\u2019s actual signature and affix it to another document.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Someone looking to commit fraud could use PDF and\/or JPEG manipulation software to fake signatures of both the signer and the witnesses.\u00a0 The same is true for notarization.\u00a0 All one would really need is a picture of the notary\u2019s stamp.\u00a0 With that, and maybe a little old-fashioned forgery, a fraudster could put together a document that appears to have been signed, witnessed and notarized.<\/p>\n<p>So, the traditional methods are still good, but they are no longer airtight.\u00a0 In fact, they never have been (e.g. <em>Catch Me If You Can<\/em>).\u00a0 If someone wants to fake a document, they can.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>If signatures can be faked, then the person you are trying to hold to a contract can say: \u201cThat does look like my signature, but I didn\u2019t sign the contract.\u201d\u00a0 So, now what do you do?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><strong>Modern Solution<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Since there is no way to <em>ever<\/em> know with 100% certainty that a signature is authentic &#8212; even with witnesses and notarization &#8212; should we not take advantage of the convenience we get through e-signing?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>On top of the convenience, in some important ways, e-signatures can be even more secure than handwritten signatures.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For one thing, the e-sign apps generate a Certificate of Authenticity showing when and where the electronic signature was affixed.\u00a0 That is certainly not proof positive, but it might be just about as good as notarization.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I know what you are thinking.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>E-sign apps depend solely upon email addresses, so it might be very easy for a person to get out of a contract by just saying \u201cSomeone hacked my email\u201d or \u201cAnother person who has access to my email account signed, but I didn\u2019t authorize that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5><strong>Best Evidence<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>That brings us to the crux of this article.\u00a0 What if, in addition to the other party&#8217;s e-signature, you also have an email thread showing discussions leading up to execution of the document?\u00a0 How is the other party going to wriggle out of that evidence?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Even if you only have a single confirmation email saying something like \u201cI received the document you e-signed earlier today,\u201d any judge would find that to be very compelling evidence.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As long as the other side does not respond to your email with something like: \u201cWhat are talking about?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t sign anything,\u00bb then those written communications are likely to be very hard to overcome.\u00a0 In most cases, you will have a fairly extensive thread of communications, both before and after electronic execution, so you should be in very good shape if you later have to enforce the contract.<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>So, when you get down to the actual purpose of a signature, which is to demonstrate a person willingly entered into an agreement, today\u2019s e-signing apps are not only amazingly convenient and environment-friendly, but they also tend to authenticate signatures <em><strong>more effectively<\/strong><\/em> than the traditional methods.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are many agencies that have not caught up with the times.\u00a0 For example, we still have to submit immigration documents, loan documents, and others with wet ink originals.\u00a0 But, it is clear e-signing technology is the future, and we are all be better off for it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0~ <a href=\"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/attorneys\/jeffrey-harrington-esq\/\">Jeff Harrington, Esq.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>E-signing technology is becoming more and more prevalent, and there is no denying the convenience.\u00a0 Affixing your signature with a simple tap on your phone screen is a beautiful thing.\u00a0 After all, the alternative is to print the document, sign it, scan, and then email the scanned copy.\u00a0 Sometimes you have to go find witnesses, and, if notarization is required . . . well, now you really have yourself a project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,404,210,405],"tags":[179,113,112,513,136,119,514,399,400,396,397,395,398,403,402,401],"class_list":["post-2998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-business-transactions","category-real-estate","category-real-estate-transactions","tag-attorney-jeff-harrington","tag-business-attorney","tag-business-law","tag-business-law-form","tag-business-lawyer","tag-business-transactions","tag-commercial-transactions","tag-digital-signature","tag-document-execution","tag-docusign","tag-e-sign","tag-e-signature","tag-electronic-signature","tag-online-signature","tag-sign-documents","tag-signing-app"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myhlaw.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}