ARmy Rumour SErvice

As I understand it, the only electronic document that has any legal standing is a fax.

However, the best bet is to do as merchantman states and get the hard copies sent as well.

Originally Posted by merchantman

E-mailed contracts are usually acceptable. I would sign and return the document by e-mail but ask that 2 hard copies be sent by post then sign and return one of the hard copies so both parties have a signed original. I would say though that the contract is binding on the basis of the e-mailed copy

That's how our work does it.

The E-mail is enough to start the payment off but if the hard copies don't arrive it can be cancelled and reclaimed.

Saying that we use pdf signatures and e-mails for contractual stuff as well, so horses for courses I suppose.

S_R

Originally Posted by The_Duke

That is not because it was scanned, but because it was a fraudulent or wrongful application of your signature to show agreement when none was given.

Exactly right your grace.

Of course it all depends upon legal jurisdiction, and the bonds of trust in law and commerce in that country. UK has a highly-evolved trust-based system that simply doesn't apply in other countries - hence why foreign criminals find it so laughably easy to commit fraud in UK.

Where I work (Russia/ Kazakhstan), you can't make any simple commercial transaction without original signatures, application of the official company stamp (only one of which is permitted to be issued to the company by the judicial authorities) and multiple hard-copies of everything - often all backed up by tri-lingual translated/ notarised powers of attorney and signature cards, etc. Makes buying a box of pencils a nightmare, but at least accounting is simplified and legal issues are generally black-and-white...

Hmmm. About 10 years ago I worked for a company that was heavily involved with "Digital Signatures" for the oil and gas industry and the banks/government.

We were in partnership with a company called VeriSign that provided authentication for digital signatures.

The issue is that someone can log onto your PC and send an e-mail from your account with a digital signature attached, and you have no way of authenticating it on a normal system..and therefore, legally, you could be on a sticky wicket.

We built a biometric authentication system which in simple form, was a thumb scanner built into the keyboard, but on a more advanced level, a small camera ontop of the monitor that linked into face recognition software that when you sent an e-mail with a signature, scanned your thumb/face, linked into VeriSign and would not send it unless the two matched up.

The govenment was all keen on the idea, we invested several million pounds in the technology, only for the government to decided that they would stick with hard copy signatures..and we went bust!

I still believe an electronic signature (scanned or otherwise) is not legally binding as it is not a "true representation", and can be altered digitally. A fax/photocopy and so on cannot in theory, be altered..although it can be forged before sending...go figure..lol

Originally Posted by 2/51

Hmmm. About 10 years ago I worked for a company that was heavily involved with "Digital Signatures" for the oil and gas industry and the banks/government.

We were in partnership with a company called VeriSign that provided authentication for digital signatures.

The issue is that someone can log onto your PC and send an e-mail from your account with a digital signature attached, and you have no way of authenticating it on a normal system..and therefore, legally, you could be on a sticky wicket.

We built a biometric authentication system which in simple form, was a thumb scanner built into the keyboard, but on a more advanced level, a small camera ontop of the monitor that linked into face recognition software that when you sent an e-mail with a signature, scanned your thumb/face, linked into VeriSign and would not send it unless the two matched up.

The govenment was all keen on the idea, we invested several million pounds in the technology, only for the government to decided that they would stick with hard copy signatures..and we went bust!

I still believe an electronic signature (scanned or otherwise) is not legally binding as it is not a "true representation", and can be altered digitally. A fax/photocopy and so on cannot in theory, be altered..although it can be forged before sending...go figure..lol

Interesting system. Did you not market it to the commercial world?

Originally Posted by Cabana

As I understand it, the only electronic document that has any legal standing is a fax.

However, the best bet is to do as merchantman states and get the hard copies sent as well.

The trouble with Fax docs is that they tend to fade quicker.

A while back North Wales Police had a load of speeding convictions overturned, because a motorist appealed. Either the police officer in the case or someone in the prosecutions unit (can't remember which) sent out a load of notices to motorists with their signature scanned on, instead of signing them in person. Courts said that meant the motorists weren't served proper notices.