How To Sign Document for Legal

How to sign a legal document

Hi, I'm David Soble and I'm a real estate and finance attorney providing legal services throughout Michigan and Ohio. Every week I sort through emails and letters with questions from clients and friends that relate to real estate contracts and financial disputes. And this week a legal inquiry comes from Edith R. over in Rockwood, Michigan, who states that she and her siblings are dealing with a commercial property in her father's estate. So she writes, I have four siblings who live in different States throughout the country and my CPA wants each of us to sign an agreement with original signatures and he wants these documents back obviously very, very shortly and he needs the original signatures on the agreement. So her concern is that according to her, she says that it means that she has to keep overnighting and forwarding this important original document to each of her siblings throughout the country. Her concern is that she's afraid that it's going to get lost and she asked. Certainly there are easier ways to get all parties original signatures onto the document. So there are actually the first, I would like to know really what type of document that you're referring to. You see if the document is an agreement or any instrument that's not going to be recorded in the County property records, then generally yes, everyone in your family can sign their own document and they can send that in to your CPA. And that's really, if the document has to have a provision in it and it's called a counterpart provision. So if the agreement contains a counterpart provision, then your siblings can execute their own documents. So to sign a contract and counterparts means that each party to a contract will actually be signing different but identical copies of the contract and all of the different copies together. You know, they'll come together and they'll complete a single agreement and any of these copies will be treated actually as an original in a court of law for evidentiary purposes, so to speak. So yes, that's one way that you can accomplish getting everybody to sign without having to be concerned about an original document or one original document floating around the country. Another way to execute documents that need signatures from multiple parties is to actually go online and use an electronic signature service such as DocuSign or Hello. A service that secure it gives the electronic signature provisions is a legal way to get the consent or approval on, electronic documents or forms. So a service can actually replace a handwritten signature in virtually any process. So that's true except for conveyance documents such as deeds, mortgages, or liens, which generally require the original signature on a document. However, the way to accomplish this is to all of the multiple parties. Everyone executes their own deed and they send that document in and send it instead of sending one original document or one deed out for four signatures at different locations. I hope you found this information helpful, Edith. Definitely go online, check out DocuSign. That's a great service. For all of those who are watching, if you liked this video, please care to share it with your friends and your family. You can also leave a review on what you like about it, just in the comments. So feel free to write in the comments section, other topics that you'd like for us to discuss in addition to your review. And if you wish to submit your own legal question like the one that Edith did, then you can just email us@teamatprovenresource.com I get tons of emails every week and we sort them through my staff and myself and we get great questions. Edith, your question was really a good question. Also I wanted to let you know that I just released a new book around two months ago. It's called, Shady and it's how to protect yourself when doing business with your friends or your relatives. You can download that book for free just by going to our website, www. Provenresource.com and finally, I never assume that you would need anything from me, but if you have any questions that relate to Michigan or Ohio real estate law, contract law, or any financial disputes, please feel free to give me a call at triple eight seven eight nine one seven one five. Thanks again for watching. I'm David Soble and have a great day.