What is the deal with digital signatures/contracts?

Business
1

Hello there.

I’m curious to know what the present day situation is on digital signatures for contracts for freelance work. I’m working on a system where I have all my estimates, invoices, tasks, client information, documents, knowledge base in one place. Basically, everything I would need to run my business from anywhere.

I’m also wanting to have the ability for me to give an estimate, the client logs in to see it, and then can basically ‘digitally sign it’ to make it happen. From here I can then get on with the work by setting up a tasks list and ticking it off as it’s done. This way the client can see the progress etc…

Anyhow, I was wondering what the legal position on this? If I allow the confirmation to be printed with a date time stamp on it - I mean, is this enough? I rarely deal with work more than £1000, but it’s just trying to keep things simple, fast and efficient for me and my clients.

Could anyone with experience/knowledge shed some light on this? Thank you, it’s much appreciated.

2

Electronic signatures, in almost any form, are signatures. If for some reason the client contested whether they signed your document or not, the document doesn’t have to stand alone in court – all your other e-mails and phone calls and payments can be used as evidence that the client intended to agree to the contract, not just the act of signing it.

3

I sometimes have my client sign contracts electronically using echoSign.com.

The electronic signatures are legally binding in many countries. Here is the text to the “Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act - Section 105(a)” (or “eSignature Act” for short) which went into effect in the United State in Oct 1, 2000.

4

Thank you for the links and information. It does indeed seem these days it’s a possible thing to do. My idea around this is to keep everything in a central place, where it can all be reviewed and sorted out from one place.

It does seem the way to go. Thank you for your feedback. Those few links are useful and I will also look into echosign.