Are digital contract signatures legal?
by admin on 23/12/08 at 11:59 pm
Account Management Today recommends ECHOSIGN.COM
So first things first - are electronic signatures legally binding? Simple answer is yes - since 2000. But don’t take our word for it - here what Gartner has to say…
Gartner just published one of the most thoughtful research notes on e-signatures (11/2007) in some time. The point as the abstract notes is that laws for e-signatures are already on the books, and the key to thinking about e-signatures is not legality (they are legal under the U.S. E-Sign Act and similar laws in most other Western countries) or the “mechanism used to create a signature”, but rather the benefits of signature automation as part of the overall business process.
The piece also counsels its readers to ignore “scare stories” from vendors trying to spread FUD for competitive advantage — there are at least a half dozen creditable, ‘legal’ e-signature solutions on the market — and instead pick a solution that enhances your business.
In addition…
“For several years now, electronic signature laws have permitted the use of electronic signatures, but the adoption has not occurred because no one (until recently) bothered to make it easier than using paper”
The facts are that thousands of leading corporations use electronic signatures to get contracts signed faster and close more business. While agreements have been “inked” electronically as far back as the dawn of the telegraph, the modern era was ushered in when Bill Clinton signed the Federal E-SIGN Act into law on October 1, 2000. The E-SIGN Act makes online electronic signatures in a commercial transaction equivalent to a written signature. Similar laws have been passed in every state, as well as in the European Union.
If you consider that companies such as Cisco, Webex, Paypal, HP, Dell, BT, Linkedin and GE are all using digital signatures now - hopefully any initial legal concerns you may have had will have gone away now.
For a full downloadable guide to the Echosign process - take a look at this account management training course which goes into detail on how it all works.
