7 FAQ’s About Signing Documents Online

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7 FAQs About Signing Documents Online
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We often get questions about what an esignature
is and how to sign documents online. Some of our
most frequently asked questions are shown
below. 1 E-signing Does typing your name on a
form and clicking submit hold up as a legal
signature? No. There are a number of e-signature
laws across the world, such as ESIGN and UETA,
which define what constitute a legally binding
esignature. Just typing a name on a form and
clicking submit has several issues that prevent
it being upheld in a court of law, these
are Anyone could type a name on a form for it
to be legally binding there must be a way to
prove the typed name belongs to the person it
represents. For example, in the ApproveMe esignatu
re platform, we use a digital certificate to
prove the person signing a document, is who they
say they are. Digital certificates are issued by
certificate authorities (CA) CAs check who you
are when they issue the certificate. The
certificate then becomes a digital version of you.
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When you electronically sign a document online
the document needs to be tied to the signature
itself. This makes sure that if anything changes
in the document, for example, someone changes a
clause from I will pay 1000 to I will pay
100 the change will be spotted. Simply typing
your name into a document cannot tie the
signature to the document. You need to have
specialist software like ApproveMe to hash the
document content. Hashing the document creates a
unique fingerprint if the document changes,
youll be warned as your signature will become
invalid and an event of the change will be
captured. 2 How can e-signatures or online
signatures mean anything? The introduction of
e-signature laws that gave legal weight to
electronic signatures added meaning to them.
E-signature laws such as ESIGN and UETA in the
USA, and EU Directive 1999/99/EC in Europe
outlined the legal requirements of electronic
signatures making them as valid as wet
(handwritten) signatures. But it wasnt until the
development of usable esignature software, like
ApproveMe, that electronic signing came into its
own. Specialist signing solutions allow you to
make document signing part of a business process.
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3 What is the legal difference between a
persons initials and signature? Adding initials
to the pages of a contract is not a legally
binding signature that shows you agree to the
terms of the contract. The addition of initials
on a page shows that you have read that page of
the document. Adding initials is a good tool for
preventing the inclusion of pages that have not
been agreed for example after a contract is
signed. Adding an actual signature (whether ink
on paper or electronic signature) is a statement
of agreement to the terms and promises of the
document / contract.
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4 Can a person have more than one type of
signature? You can have as many signatures as
you like, but on any given document you should
stick to the type of signature best suited to
that document. So, a hard copy document would
require a handwritten (wet) signature, and an
electronic document signed online would require a
legally binding esignature. It may be that you
require multiple signatories on a single
document. In principle you could have a mix of
wet and electronic signatures. However, in
practice this is not ideal. You should always
apply the same rules for the type of signature
applied to all parties. This will remove any
discrepancies between the signatures. For
example, if esignatures are applied, then audit
rules, and document hashing methodologies are
applied uniformly. 5 What if someone can no
longer write his or her signature? If you find
that you can no longer write your signature, for
example, you may become disabled and lose the use
of your hand, there are alternatives that can be
used.
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The trick it to have a notary or other legal
entity attest a mark. That is an alternative to
a wet signature is allowed for this individual.
This could be an X, or a fingerprint, or some
other mark. As long as a legal entity, such as a
notary has attested that the individual is the
person making the mark, it will be the equivalent
of a hand written signature. If the person could
use a computer, then an electronic signature
would also be an option, as the sign documents
online often involves a simple click or the
addition of a mark. 6 What is meant by a wet,
digital and electronic signature  A wet
signature is one made using a pen on hard copy
paper A digital signature is the process by
which a document is signed online. That is the
software creating the digital signature performs
a routine to create a signature. This usually
involves creating a hash of the document content
so that any changes can be easily identified. It
also has a mechanism for then signing that
hashed content (usually using a digital
certificate).
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An electronic signature can be anything that
constitutes an online mark, like a symbol or an
image of your signature. Electronic signatures
dont have the security of a digital signature,
as they dont create a hash of a document, or tie
the signature to the document itself. Products,
like ApproveMe which allow you to sign documents
online, use a combination of the security of
digital signature technology, with the ease of
use of electronic signatures. 7 Does my online
signature have to be identical to my handwritten
signature? No In fact, the ESIGN e-signature
law, which sets out the legal requirements for an
electronic signature states that a signature can
bean electronic sound, symbol, process
attached to or logically associated with a
contract or other record and executed or adopted
by a person with the intent to sign the record
and be legally bound. Article Resource
https//www.approveme.com/e-signature/sign-documen
ts-online/