Electronic Signature Legality for Business Transaction Management in United States

How to eSign a document: electronic signature legality for Business Transaction Management in United States

Are you wondering what on earth the UETA is or what it means for your business? In this episode of Business Solutions Academy by JD Young technologies, we're going to provide a quick overview of the uniform electronic transactions act and how it may affect your organization. As a quick disclaimer, this video is not meant to serve as legal advice. We are not lawyers, we don't even play lawyers on TV, but moving on... What is the UETA? The uniform electronic transactions act, or UETA is an act that applies legal authority to electronic documents and electronic signatures or agreements. As electronic banking started to expand in the 80s and 90s, the cost of producing, storing and managing all of these paper copies of transactions that had never existed on paper was beginning to slow the pace of business. In order to help keep physical paperwork from gumming up the speed of business. The uniform electronic transaction act - UETA - was written by the National Conference of Commissioners on uniform state laws or NCCUSL. What does the UETA do? The UETA goes far beyond just making regulations for electronic documents. Like many other acts, the UETA act helps to officially define certain terms that had been up until that point, alien or undefined to courts. The Act creates the legal definition of an electronic document, but also what is considered agreeing to the terms outlined by the document. For instance, if terms and conditions are required to be provided in writing, could they be sent to you in an email? Could they be sent to you in an audio format? Could you agree to terms with a voice command? t=Terms like these and many others are defined in section two. How far does the UETA reach? While other regulations may cover other criteria, the UETA only pertains to business, commercial or governmental transactions. So while an eSignature on a lease would fall under the terms of the UETA, an email about a non business related agreement between two individuals may not be subject to the act. What does the UETA protect? Pre-UETA, the question of whether or not an electronic document could be admissible as evidence in court was pretty much up to each individual court. ing to the UETA, it is ruled that such electronic records are not to be dismissed as evidence because of their electronic nature. The same section, Section 7, also claims that terms and required signatures for certain transactions can be in digital form. Still, for the sake of full disclosure and record keeping, the act claims that if electronic documents and signatures are allowed, copies or records of these must be given to all parties involved. You can learn all about these details by reading the UETA for yourself. Is your document management system in compliance with the UETA? While we can rejoice and not having to keep file cabinets loaded with paper records, electronic content management systems will still need to be UETA compliant. If your document management system doesn't have built in UETA compliance features, you could potentially find yourself in violation of any number of sections of the Act. This is why it pays to seek out a business solutions company that can provide document management systems with UETA compliance baked in. So did you learn something new about UETA today? If so, let us know in the comments below. And remember to give this video a like on YouTube. While you're at it, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss another episode of Business Solutions Academy brought to you by JD Young technologies. If you want to learn more about UETA, documen management, and hundreds of oth r business solutions relat d topics, check out our resour e center at jdyoung.co