Is a document signed with hellosign legally binding?

[MFPA]

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Hi


On Thursday 3 January 2013 at 9:43:33 PM, in
<mid:CA+7cx1qngooap2e60d95-MfcCg9gXn8Bz1n_5YMGTay7TRjYkQ at mail.gmail.com>,
Morten Kjærulff wrote:


> It is a service
> where you upload an image file with your handwritten
> signature. Later on you can upload a document and they
> will merge your signature and document, and mail it to
> the one you specified.

I can't quite see the point of this. Surely you could just paste the
image of your signature into the document yourself, save it as a PDF
(for example), and email it to the intended recipient.

I also question whether I would want to give somebody else an image of
my handwritten signature, especially a website that requires you to
enable scripts from about a dozen domains.



> They claim (http://www.hellosign.com/info/faq) that
> electronic signatures are legally binding, and refer fx
> to "European Directive (EC/1999/93)"
> <http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/esignature/docs/electronic_sig_report.pdf>.

A quick skim through that document suggests to me the basic intention
of the directive is for electronic signatures to have the same legal
status as handwritten signatures. I'm not convinced that document is
hugely relevant.

I see no reason why the image of your signature placed into the
document should have any different status than:-
    * typing your name and making clear it constituted a signature, or
    * one of those rubber-stamp signatures that solicitors used to use
      on cheques, or
    * an actual handwritten signature.

Of course, I am not legally trained. Anybody taking the advice of
anonymous strangers over the internet does so at their own risk.

>
> As far as I can see, this document is about digital
> signing using certificate and so on.

Yes. Although the document does mention on page 215: "An e-signature in
the form of a computer-generated facsimile would have satisfied the
requirements of the Insolvency Act in terms of signing a proxy voting
form." That sounds very much like adding an image to a document as an
electronic signature.



> As I see it, the service provided by hellosign.com has
> nothing to do with the topics in "European Directive
> (EC/1999/93)".

> Am I right or wrong?

There is certainly a lot in the linked EC document that has nothing to
do with the service offered by hellosign.com.



- --
Best regards

MFPA                    mailto:expires2013 at ymail.com

Another person's secret is like another person's money:
you are not as careful with it as you are with your own
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