Tyler Newby, partner at Fenwick & West LLP, does an excellent job highlighting the value of audit trails in authenticating electronic signatures in court in his article “Using E-Signatures in Court – The Value of an Audit Trail.” Many European countries share the UK`s approach of accepting contracts without handwritten signatures as legally binding. In 2015, the Directive on electronic signatures was replaced by EU legislation from 2000 by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, commonly known as eIDAS. eIDAS explained that there are three types of electronic signatures: SES, AES and QES, just like in the UK. U.S. federal law recognizes the validity of electronic signatures as long as they meet certain standards. These include: When combined with tamper-proof sealing, strong authentication, state-of-the-art security, and an audit trail, electronic signatures provide stronger evidence than a simple handwritten signature or a scanned image of a signature in a PDF. While electronic signatures are widely accepted for many business transactions in the United States and abroad, there are certain circumstances where an old-fashioned signature is still required, such as on wills, some trusts, powers of attorney, and birth and death certificates. In most cases, documents that need to be notarized also require a manual signature, although a handful of states allow some documents to be notarized electronically or remotely. Evaluate your organization`s agreements and make decisions about which levels of authentication, consent, intent, and proof work for you. Capture and communicate everything in one primary legality policy for electronic signatures. Electronic signatures are rarely challenged in court. But if that ever happens to your business, Adobe is here for you.
Whether it`s explaining our solution, taking affidavits, or appearing for a Person Most Knowledgeable (PMK) statement, Adobe can help you defend the legality of our e-signature solution. If you introduce electronic signatures in one or more countries, you should familiarize yourself with local laws. We facilitate knowledge of the legal standards specific to each country. In some cases, electronic signatures are not accepted in the United States. In these cases, signatures must consist of “wet ink” or officially certified signatures. For typical legally binding e-signature implementations, our e-signature solution is out of the box. The standard process gives you everything you need to authenticate signatories, show intent and consent, and gather final evidence. It`s also easy to add enhanced, extended, or qualified electronic signatures to handle signature processes that require increased security and safeguards. In 2014, the European Parliament repealed the Electronic Signatures Directive (1999/93/EC) with the aim of creating a more uniform market for electronic transactions across the EU.
It has been replaced by EU Regulation No. 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market, also known as eIDAS. Electronic signatures are actively used in Europe, and DocuSign electronic signatures comply with eIDAS technical standards and EU technical standards for electronic signatures. That said, like everything in life, there are a few exceptions. As described by the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA), electronic signatures are not legally valid when signing: this does not necessarily mean that you have to worry about using a particular technology or process for electronic signatures, for example, if one of the signatories is based in Europe or China. Most of these laws allow private parties to enter into an electronic agreement using the technology and process of their choice. Here are the basic features of a legally binding electronic signature. While this overview is based on the principles of U.S. law, most of the principles can be applied to electronic signatures in other parts of the world, which we will discuss in the next section. Documents signed electronically enjoy the same legal protection as those signed with a ballpoint pen.
Nevertheless, the biggest concern of the majority of companies interested in electronic signatures for contracts and other important documents is whether these electronically completed documents are both legally valid and admissible in court.