Scott E Ludwig Recognized as Fellow of Alabama Law Institute legalnewsline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from legalnewsline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Law in the Marketplace: The uses and pitfalls of e-signatures >Published: 7/24/2021 9:16:15 PM
In 1990, a national organization known as the Uniform Laws Commission published a new uniform statute entitled the “Uniform Electronic Transactions Act” (UETA), and New Hampshire enacted the UETA in 2001. In 2000, the federal government enacted a similar law entitled the “Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act” (the ESIGN Act).
With limited exceptions, both acts make new law by providing that, if they meet certain conditions, contracts that exist only in electronic form and that are signed only electronically will be just as valid and enforceable as traditional paper contracts with ink signatures. Exceptions to UETA and the ESIGN Act include estate planning documents, documents related to adoptions, divorces and other family matters, and certain types of documents under certain provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code. (In this column, “electronic contra