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How to eSign a document: electronic signature licitness for contracts in Australia

in this edition of tech law tips podcast we're going to talk about a question that we receive very very often and that is can i sign a document electronically or does it need that handwritten signature so stick around we'll be getting that in just a moment [Music] hey folks my name is daniel whitehouse and we're here for another edition of tech law tips podcast this edition is one a question that we receive quite often it is can i sign a document electronically or does it need an actual handwritten signature that is either emailed or faxed or whatnot and the answer most of the time is yes yes you can sign a document electronically whether you want to use or any of the other platforms that are out there most legal documents can be signed electronically there is both federal law and state law that allows the signing of documents electronically the e-sign act is the federal law that many states have also adopted at their local level so that at the state level for any state-based contracts those are also effective when signed electronically there's one catch to this whole electronic signatures act though if you're doing business electronically you may inadvertently create a contract with someone by communicating electronically whether that's via email and you say do you want to do this yes i will do that in exchange for x you've got the components of a contract a contract may inadvertently be formed just via email even without that that extra signature our advice is always to create that contract that has all of the terms spelled out for you and you're not leaving anything up to chance in an email and then that final version can be signed electronically you wouldn't believe how many times we get asked that question about you know should we just send this via email back and forth type of thing we never advise that sending via email is the appropriate mechanism so sign those documents electronically there are some however that based on state law do require notary signature and many times a notary has to be done in person so electronic signatures do not work there here in florida as of january 1st 2020 we have an electronic or remote notary option that has been enacted in the state statutes some of the providers haven't necessarily caught up to comply with the statute so do your research on on which providers are appropriate for your remote notary options and you can kind of go from there i'll also be candid and say that we've been using here at white house and cooper for a number of years and it has streamlined our internal processes considerably it also helps our clients execute their documents we send them out to both sides sometimes to have signed we've had multi-million dollar contracts signed using and we really do enjoy the the product they're not even a sponsor of ours maybe we need to approach them after posting this and see if they're interested anyway if you have any questions go ahead and hit us up on all the various channels and if you'd like to see a topic of your choice included in a future podcast we'd love to hear from you until next time [Music] you